


Soul Eater: The Waiting Rooms

by Versatxle



Category: Soul Eater
Genre: (not like a fanfic AU as in literal interdimensinal travel), Acid, Alternate Universe, Angst, Conspiracy Theory, Drama, Drug Experimentation, Existential, Existential Horror, Existentialism, F/M, Horror, Kid sleeps with a lot of people lol, LSD, Lovecraftian, Lovecraftian Monster(s), M/M, Mdma, Michigan Blue Hell Theory, Multi, Original Character(s), Politics, Post Canon Manga, Post-Canon, Recreational Drug Use, SCP, SCP inspired story, Sci-Fi Elements, Simulation, Simulation Conspiracy theory, Simulation Theory, Slow Build, Slow Burn, The Backrooms (Creepypasta), The Backrooms (Reddit), The Backrooms - Freeform, Weed, alternate time lines, backrooms, cosmic horror, interdimensinal travel, interdimensional beings, mild NSFW
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-07
Updated: 2019-10-27
Packaged: 2020-08-11 00:28:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 5
Words: 25,577
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20144530
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Versatxle/pseuds/Versatxle
Summary: Set seconds after the manga finishes, Kid finds himself endeavouring a new responsibility, with the DMWA and the world in the palm of his hands. Though after he is taken aside by Spirit and Stein, he gets told that in Deaths official Will it states that: "While Kid is the new True Death God he cannot be running political affairs, the DWMA and Death City without extensive assistance until he has passed a year long process called Jitsuzon-teki— a strange stage in a Shinigami’s life where he has to mentally transition form being partially human to a full Death God." With the help of Spirit and Stein, Kid embarks on a personal 12 month journey, all the while he makes some terrible personal decisions.During this journey, Kid starts to get terrifying dreams it is revealed that Death had some truths that were never meant to be revealed. With the discovery of a strange dark secret, Kid realises that there are some things larger than the world they know, and the worst part is: He is sworn to secrecy. How will he manage to contain a government secret when the public starts to conspire against him all while going through the crazy time of Jitsuzon-teki? How will he handle press conferences? And what does Weed feel like?





	1. Athoth Go!! Go!!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Warning! This first chapter contains mentions of teens on drugs/underage drinking basically your average high school party

**Disclaimer (READ IF YOU CARE STRONGLY ABOUT THE SOUL EATER LORE)**

I finished Soul Eater back in 2015 and as of right now its been roughly like four or so years since then! I didn’t really feel like re-reading the Manga so I just recapped by watching the Anime and reading the wiki. So if theres any plot points that are inconsistent or does not comply with the rules of the Soul Eater Universe please point it out! I’ll try and fix it in the upcoming chapters. I'm trying really hard to create some sort of spin off story with I guess new threats or something like that? Idk I feel like I'm bound to get so much wrong since I've forgotten a bunch of details and I'm gonna try my hardest to make this fit into the universe somehow. 

The only thing in the lore that I’ll be changing is the contemporary usage of social media/music/film which is sorta absent from the manga. So I guess it’s a slight AU where everything exactly the same except they have phones? Idk lol 

I thought I would just have this disclaimer because there is a side of the fandom that really is a little elitist about Soul Eater Lore (including myself a bit) when it comes to fan fictions that attempt to fit in with the main story, (So not including one shots or x reader kind of things.) I really want to make sure I get everything right! So thank you for reading and leave a comment if you like! xx

* * *

“THIS IS SOUL RESONANCE!”

The music was loud, euphoria seeped in the air as Soul’s fingers glided across the keyboard sitting on the paved steps. Maka’s smile spread from ear to ear as the crowd cheered and applauded. Her heart could have leapt from her chest, everything was fuzzy. Everything was warm. 

“I bet that felt good to get out of your system!” Kid chuckled at the girl. 

Eventually the cheering died down, the fireworks grew softer and the sky got darker. It was time to clean up, sweeping the bio-degradable confetti off the grounds and picking up the bottles of Sake that were about to escape into the gutters. It was a clean up that most of the DWMA got involved in, except BlackStar who was attempting to curb stomp a tower of barrels onto the ground.

“BlackStar!” Tsubaki whined, grabbing his wrist and dragging him off the street.

“Take that you stupid barrel! You think a bunch of boxes can defeat me!”  
The girl sighed at her Meister, shaking her head, “Baka! Who are you even talking too?”

Kid couldn’t handle how asymmetrical the mess was, piling all the blue confetti to one pile and all the red to the other, but the piles weren’t as tall as the other and the blue pile was slightly too wide.  
  
“Oh dear,” He said, “Oh no this is all wrong this is terrible!”  
He picked up a single confetti paper, putting it on the pile, sighing in relief as the piles were now even for him to sweep into the trash bags. But suddenly, a sharp wind picked up, blowing all the paper back onto the streets.

“GAH!” He shrieked, Liz was quick to bounce to the rescue and push Kid away who started to have tears well in his eyes from the horrific sight.

“This way Kid come on!” She said, “Patty’s going to fix it don’t worry it’ll be fine!” Stein had told Liz about several ways to distract Kid from his peculiar problem, it mainly involved distraction and dominance, being assertive on moving the Reaper away from the crime scene.

Out of sight out of mind.

“But the pile! The pile of confetti!” He wailed, being shoved away to another pillar where he sat, and cried it all out.  
“Don’t worry about it! It’s fine, we outta go home anyway Kid!” Liz said optimistically, “You got a party to host remember?”  
“Oh yeah!” Kid had completely forgotten about the after party _he _was meant to host in a few hours.

Distraction, Dominance, Assertiveness. Out of sight, out of mind.

So far the technique had been working, at least for little mundane things around the house. It mainly involved aistracting him with a picture of geometrical and symmetrical mosques from around the world or the optical illusion book— which was Kids favourite. She knew a trait like this would struggle to last as Kid would now run the DMWA. It was something that had her gut flutter out of fear for the future. How was Kid supposed to be the new Shinigami and run a school if he could hardly keep it together for a few moments without squabbling over something pedantic?

Regardless, her concern got pushed aside as she focused on hosting a party. Kid insisted that they kept it to the dining room and the bathroom. He had covered everything expensive in a plastic sheet and surrounded staircases with _‘Do Not Enter’_ signs— as he predicted drunk teenagers would break a thing or two. It surprisingly didn’t take much convincing for Kid to host the afterparty at his, and he very well knew what he was getting himself into, but still was getting anxious every time someone seemed a little too wobbly around a delicate statue or bookcase.

Killik got asked to DJ, and Kid was keen on paying him regardless of Killik being more than happy to do it for free. The Reaper wasn’t too sure on what to expect music wise as he wasn’t the biggest fan of EDM but was pleasantly surprised at whatever Killik was spinning.

“GREAT PARTY!” BlackStar roared over the music at Kid, grabbing him by the shoulders and pulling him into a tight hug that caught the reaper off by surprise, but nonetheless embraced it. He chuckled quietly, not saying much in response as he watched the others dance and have a good time. Though from the corner of his eye his spotted some N.O.T students dunking pills down their throats, taking a quick shot of vodka to wash it down, others were snorting powdered substances from their train passes.

Kid knew there were going to be drugs, regardless that majority of the party goers being DWMA students both from the E.A.T and N.O.T classes (Most if not all have escaped out of an array of death defying experiences several times though their stay at the school.) they were all still dumb teenagers.  
He would be lying to himself if he said that he wasn’t _curious _to try things. But there was no way he would, not with the amount of responsibility that was in his hands now, not with all those that looked up to him and absolutely _no way _while he had worn his fathers mantle, stood on that stage, and announced Soul to be the _Last Death Scythe_ hours before.

No way.

Soul had been standing sheepishly against the back wall, holding the same glass bottle of Heineken for over an hour. Maka had been easily distracted by comforting drunk girls crying in the bathroom and Kid wasn’t too sure if Soul was even in the partying mood.  
The Reaper zig zagged his way through groups of people, flashes of phone cameras recording an unfortunate student who had taken too much Molly was gurning like his life depended on it.

“Soul!” Kid called out, now at a quieter corner, “You don’t seem awfully excited what’s up?” He said tucking his hands in his pockets.  
“Nah I’m fine…it’s just not my kind of scene.” Soul noted, glancing at the gurner who desperately needed some gum.  
“And do you think it’s my scene?” The Shinigami raised a brow.

“Well…no,” Soul said, “how are you okay with this?”

The Reaper shrugged, “Kids will be kids I guess. As long as no one breaks anything stuff like this is bound to happen. But, fear not! We can be our own little sober squad as I think you’ve been working on that for the past hour.” Kid looked down at the half empty bottle of beer.

The albino shrugged, “Not much of a beer person.”  
“There’s cruisers in the fridge if you’d like.” Kid suggested.  
“No way! That’s a girls drink, thats so not cool.” Soul shook his head, “I’d keep downing my Heineken thank-you!” He took a regretful swig, cringing at the taste but kept on going to finish the bottle.  
“Whatever you say Soul.” Kid watched him guzzle it down, The scythes eyes watering but he just kept on going, no one was even encouraging him— there was no chug tube or chanting— he was just going for it.  
Soul let out a gasp for air, then a burp and wiped his mouth. “Oh that was disgusting.”  
“And yet you had no reason to do it. Just like everyone else here.”  
“Man you’re right. I’ve never seen so much Molly in one space.” Soul chuckled, “I think I’m getting a second hand coke high.”  
Kid agreed, “The residue just floating in the air at this point.”  
“You seem so nonchalant about this dude. You sure you haven’t gotten anything slipped in your drink?”  
“If I’m going to be honest I think I’m just tired.” Kid said, leaning against the wall, his eyes lidded. “It’s been a big day. But I don’t think I can go to sleep just yet.”  
Soul nodded in agreement. “Might be a bit loud hey—”

“Kid! Kid!” Called out a voice, a soft voice, a voice that certainly wasn’t Souls. “Liz chucked up in the bathroom!” Maka exclaimed.

“Oh dear…which one left or right bathroom?” Kid snapped out his dazed thoughts, gripping the fabric on the inside of his pockets.  
“Left.” Maka grabbed Kid’s wrist leading him through the crowds, Soul following promptly behind him.

Then he felt it. It was subtle at first but eventually it grew. An itch. A mental itch, an itch inside his skull. 

_Don’ t think about it_

_Don’t think about it_

_Don’t think about it_

_Oh shit-_

_The symmetry of the house is all wrong, the left bathroom has vomit but the right one doesn’t? I need to get this cleaned, I need to get this cleaned up right now. Why did I host a party? I knew this would happen, I fucking knew this would happen I’m so stupid Im so dumb why did this—_

“KiD hEY!” Liz said, coughing and spitting into the toilet which her head hung over.

_Oh thank goodness…she kept it to the bowl._

“Oh Liz…” Kid crouched down, “Can you get me some water for her?” He sighed rubbing Liz’s back in circles. Maka nodded, running off the kitchen to fetch Liz the biggest glass of water she could find.  
“Oh Liz why did you drink so much?” he raised his hand, pressing the lever on the loo to wash down the purplish gunk down the pipes.  
“It tasted like grapes annnnddd I thought….it doesn’t taste like alcohol so I had…one…three…seven? No…EIGHT SHOTS! Your favourite number!” She grinned drunkenly, Soul quickly coming to the rescue with a large jug in hand, Maka with a cup.  
“Thankyou, I think I’ll take care of her…you guys can go back to the party, she'll be right.” The Reaper said to the other two pouring a glass of water and pressing it to Liz’ lips.   
After a couple of back and fourths of "_Are you sure she’s going to be fine?"_ between himself and Makathe two left leaving Liz and Kid in the bathroom alone. He shoved the door closed and continued to rub her back in circles slowly, Liz coughing and chucking every now and then and occasionally saying _sorry _in between breaths.  
  
“You know Kid…you…you really did a lot for me anddd Patty…and…bbbmmmm…I’m so proud of…proud of you..” She said, wiping her mouth with the triangle shaped toilet paper.  
“I’m proud of you too…not right now though.” Kid sighed moving hair out of her face. “Do you want to go to bed? Maybe you can go the guest room in the west wing, you won’t hear anything…”  
“Noooooooo! I wanna party! Wooooo..ooo…oooooo….” Liz voice grew quiet as she leant onto Kid, her eyes heavy.  
“Okay it’s bed time.” He helped her get up.  
“Okay, Okay but lemme get mouth wash…please.” The girl begged, and Kid couldn’t blame her.

Having vomited out most of the alcohol she had regained soberness to a certain extent. She managed to wash out her mouth with the spearmint mouth wash and Kid somehow managed to drag her away form the party with much convincing (as she seemed eager to rejoin) and into the dark guest bedroom which he honestly wasn’t even sure they used. He had never been in there unless it was to clean and Liz was more than certain it was haunted.

He helped her get dressed into something more comfortable, which was an oversized shirt found at the bottom of the drawers and a pair of old boxers which was still in its packaging. It was all he could find and he didn’t particularly want to leave Liz alone in the room looking for clothes while there were drunken boys looming about.  
Kid had finally laid her down, turning on the bedside lamp.   
  
“Do you want me to stay with you?” He asked, lifting the covers pulling them over her.  
“Mhm…” Liz turned to her side, looking up to Meister, “I promise this will NEVER happen again.” She assured him.  
“Don’t make promises you can’t keep.” Kid sighed with a smile, leaning in to reach for the pillow behind her but was interrupted when Liz abruptly pressed her lips on his. It took a second for Kid to register what was going on tasting the mix of spearmint and grape flavoured Smirnoff. By the time he did comprehend what was going on she had quickly pushed it even further.  
“Kid…bmmmmm….Kid…I’ve always wanted you.” She said, her breath heavy as she moved to grope his crotch.  
“H-HEY!” He swifted out out of her grasp. “Liz!” His cheeks were a heavy red, he felt weird. It felt wrong. He knew Liz was the drunk one who made a move on him but he still felt somehow that he violated her.

Liz took a moment, her head still spinning circles, “Fuck…FUCK why did I do that!” She started to tear up. “Oh god Kid I’m sorry!” Her sniffles were small at first, but eventually started to get heavier, more tears trickled down and Kid had to take a moment to comprehend what had just happened before he moved closer.  
“No it’s fine…I guess we’re even now from the madness of the boobs.” His face was red, he felt odd all over, he even found himself sitting slightly further away than before. “I think you should try and get some sleep though…”  
He went to go turn off the lamp before a soft knock made itself present at the door, a small Patty behind it, pushing the door slowly and peeking her blue eyes in.

“Kid?” She said, “How is she?”

Liz sprung up. “I’m feeeeelllinnnn alive!”

“She’s fine.” Kid said.

“Can I stay with her? So you can go back to the party…”

Kid was going to admit not being present in the dining room started to make him anxious, he could hear the subtle cheers and rowdiness from the other rooms and it was definitely keeping him on edge.

“Oh yes please!.” He said, getting up, “Make sure she’s on her side though. Recovery position!”

Now with knowing Liz was okay, the rest of the party was spent with Kid trying to fold the toilet paper that Liz used back into the triangle and angrily making people steer clear of the paintings he wished he had brought down earlier. Eventually the music died down, switching form Killik’s set to someones bluetooth speaker. Kid was relieved seeing people start to seep out of his house, he eagerly waiting for that sun which was going to rise any minute and he wanted everyone out before he would have a freakout over the mess. As the last few people stumbled out of the driveway, he started to feel the anxiety swell in his chest. Bottles scattered on the floor, ash trays and cigarette butts stinking out the front garden, bongs made from empty bottles of soda littered on the side gates.

He had prepped himself for this by reciting a list of many symmetrical things to keep him occupied while he cleaned up the next morning. The cleaning was meant to be help of Liz and Patty but with the way things headed it seemed like he was on his own.

“Eight, Crop circles, Snowflakes, Nautilus Shell, Eight, Crop Circles, Snowflakes, Nautilus Shell…eight…” He kept on humming to himself based on a list of top Ten Symmetrical Things Found in Nature he found on the Daily Mail one morning. He found that buy reciting those things he could keep himself calm as he actively worked on things to be symmetrical again. The number eight being an addition of his own.

“Eight, Crop circles, Snowflakes, Nautilus Shell…” He swept the kitchen, the morning rays flooding the kitchen benches making everything a pretty shade of yellow. “Crop circles, Snowflakes…” Sure he sounded freaky but recently he had become more aware of his problem.

He always knew it was an issue, and he loved symmetry— and he could look past it in times of need, but for every day adventures he hated that he loved it. It took over a significant part of his head.

“…Crop circles, Snowflakes, Nautilus Shell…”

“Kid you sound mad.” Liz said, popping up behind him, her face pale and pasty. Dark bags puffed under her eyes and her hair, greasy.  
“And you look like you just got revived form the dead.” He wiped down the benches, wincing at the sight of chips being dropped to the floor. “How are you feeling?” He asked, spraying the bottle and wiping it a second time, making sure the soap markings that stained the bench when dried was symmetrical.

“Like shit.” Liz said, popping pills into her mouth. Paracetamol pills. “If I’m going to be honest I don’t remember anything past taking shots with Tsubaki.”

The Reaper chuckled, before going quiet, blushing slightly at remembering the strange event from the night before. “Maybe it’s best you didn’t.”  
“Oh dear god what did I do?” Liz nearly choked on her water.

Kid thought about it. He thought about telling her, but he also felt strange about it.

How long had she been feeling this way? Had it always been the case or was it some drunken decision? Soul had some pretty questionable things to say when he was drunk, one time he was being far to insistent on Kid kissing him and another time he believed in Santa and was sure that he was real. This wasn’t anything different was it?

“Um…you threw up. But it’s alright because we put you to bed after!” He sprayed the bench again, wiping it down for then third time as one side was more jagged than the other.  
  
Liz put her hand on top of Kids that was about to squeeze the spray bottle.

“Stop it.” She said  
“Huh?”  
“It’s clean. Just move on to the stove. I’ll help you!” She smiled.  
“What about your hangover?”  
“I’ll be right, I’ll just have a banana and move on with it.” Liz grabbed cleaning supplies from under the sink, getting to work.

Distraction, Dominance, Assertiveness. Out of sight, out of mind.

It was late into the afternoon by the time they had straightened every painting, made sure the rubbish was organised symmetrically and Kid had polished the floor eight times, but eventually they had it all done. Kid sat on the couch, groaning in relief as his knees cracked like an old man from cleaning place top to bottom. It was only the dining room and the bathrooms but it was enough to make the three of them exhausted.

“So…” Patty sunk into the armchair. “I’m guessing thats the last party you’re ever going to host?”

“Absolutely!” Kid brought a pillow to his lap, moving out to turn on the TV.

He pressed the pillow close to his chest, his eyes lidded as he tried to comprehend the Saturday after school cartoons. The colours were vibrant yet soft, but it all became a blur as he fell fast asleep sinking into the sofa more and more. His body was weightless. He was asleep. Surely. Surely?

Suddenly Kids back pressed against something hard. Not uncomfortably hard, but firmer than the leather sofa he was laying on once before. His golden eyes peeked open to the ceiling above him. A flickering fluorescent light buzzed, it was too bright for Kid’s liking. He covered his face, sitting up trying to adjust to his surroundings.

Where was he?

This certainly wasn’t his lounge. Nor was it is manor.

The space was large, empty, the smell of humidity lingered in the air like someone had a broken air-con running, accompanied with brown mould invading the walls battling for dominance. And clearly the mould was winning.

Now Kid had been in lucid several times, he had flown on the highest skies, slept with the most famous of celebrities, had the grandest buffets and seen the most symmetrical buildings his lucid dream could offer. But this? No this was different. If Kid was in lucid he wouldn’t be dreaming a slightly moist empty office space now would he?

The humbuzz of the fluorescent tubes was just loud enough to hear it over ones thoughts. He didn’t like this, he didn’t like this at all.

“Hello?” He called out, lifting his body off the ground which felt realistically heavy. His back cracked, his eyes adjusted to the lighting. Everything felt real now. “Is anyone there?”

Why would anyone be there? I mean it was a dream wasn’t it?

He started to make his way through the rooms, a distinct shade of yellow coated the place. Yellow walls, yellow floors, yellow lights, yellow doors. It was all yellow. This could definitely drive a Shinigami mad. This could drive anyone mad.

Kid felt like he had been walking for hours, every room was the same. Yellow walls, yellow floors, yellow lights, yellow doors. Yellow Yellow Yellow Yellow! It just kept going on, he would turn left and there were more rooms, all yellow moist humid and cold. He was being followed by the chasing yellow mould. His breaths were heavy he thought he was loosing it. The Shinigami couldn’t loose to this? His dream? His lucid dream? Was this his dream? Who even was he? Had he become one with the yellow walls the yellow floors, the obnoxious yellow lights and not to forget the yellow doors?

Had he—

“Kid!”

The Shinigami fell of the sofa where he slept, his heart nearly leapt out of his chest as he was left with an uneasy feeling swirling in his stomach. He patted his surroundings, the tiles of Gallows manor certainly felt real, the rug under the coffee table felt real. And Liz, who was standing above him already in uniform looking quite upset— yes…yes she was certainly real.

“Don’t you have a meeting this evening?” She crossed her arms, looking down at the Shinigami patting the floor as if he had lost his non-existent contacts.

“Liz, I had the craziest dream.” He looked up at her.

“You can tell me about it after the meeting— which is in," Liz checked her watch. "fifteen minutes.”  
“FIFTEEN MINUTES?!” Kid bolted up, no amount of yellow walls or floors would be interesting enough to make up for time. He had rushed re arranging the pillows on the couch so that they were symmetrical, panicking as he couldn’t get the left pillow to match with the right. He patted and puffed them but they weren’t right. They were still too creased on the top and the other too creased on the bottom. Kid moved it this way and that way before he managed to get it too his liking— and now?

Now he had 8 minutes. It was fine though, Kid felt quite happy that he had 8 minutes to get ready.

Running up the stairs he nearly tripped over the last one as he turned into his darkened room. His wardrobe on the left had all of his suits— most of which he had multiples off. He made sure to always have formal wear on the sides leading into more to casual wear in the centre of his wardrobe.

6 minutes.

He hopped up and down trying to pull his socks up, trying to roll them down so they were as symmetrical as the other. The lefts sock lining was too high and the other was too low. Up and down and up and down— until he got it right.

3 Minutes

Kid soared on Beezlebub through the golden sky, the twilight rays seeping coating the whole of Death City making all the roofs and streets a deep purple. Faster and faster he saw the DWMA appear in the distance the distance

1 minute and 15 seconds.

He nearly crashed into the balcony but flew in just in time to lightly jog through the students lingering in the halls form their after school activities. The Deathroom door stood tall.

45 seconds. 

He pushed the door open— it was heavier than he remembered.

He made it, with eight seconds to spare. How wonderful.

The place felt— empty. Of course it was a seemingly infinite realm that was considerably empty most of the time if it wasn’t for the presence of Death. But now it felt more empty. It felt as if nothing had been moved, nothing had been touched. Everything was just as Death left it. There was still rubble and cracks from the remainders of his mask, they were tiny but Kid could see it and he knew, he knew where they were from.

He stood, it was cold, it was always slightly too cold in there— for as the clouds had to have something pushing on them above.

God dammit, all that rush and now the others were late.

He wasn’t even sure what the meeting was about. He had gotten vague tellings of it here and there from Spirit mainly. But nothing more than an _‘it’s important.’_

Spirit had nearly scared the life out of Kid as he approached from behind placing his hand on Kids shoulder surely out of endearment but it just caused the Reaper to gasp, instinctively pushing the others arm away.  
  
“Oh god!” He placed his hand over his heart, “Don’t do that!”  
“Geeze I was only trying to say hi.” The scythe looked down at the Shinigami.  
  
“Evening Shinigami-Sama!” Stein grinned, sucking on his new peach flavoured e-cigarette and blowing the fog out. It was far nicer smelling than his usual cigarettes, though little to Stein knowledge he had no idea that vapes were— according to Kid— considered quote un-quote _'satirical in the eyes of the youth.'_ The scientist had tried nicotine patches, gum, cold turkey— nothing worked. Nothing worked until he discovered the wonder of e-cigarettes. Slowly but surely he had lowered the nicotine little by little, sure the smell of fairy floss or peaches could get a little strong but Marie didn’t mind as long as he had fully quit by the time the baby was born.

Kid still hadn’t gotten used to being called Shinigami-Sama. He made sure to be insistent on his close friends calling him Kid. He couldn’t possibly going around demanding them to call him Shinigami-Sama after all these years of companionship— it would just feel…odd.

“Good evening Professor Stein.” Kid bowed to him.

“Well, we’re not going to waste your time here so lets get on with it.” Stein’s hands sparked with his wavelength, shooting a minuscule wave into the ground. The floor rumbled, Kid stepped backwards but Spirit reached out and stopped Kid from moving back any further. A large stand was summoned, breaking through the cracks of the ground.

“You wanted to show me…a lectern?” Kid inspected it closer.  
  
“Noooo. This,” Spirit shook his head, “we wanted to show you this.” He handed Kid a large grey scroll, it was thick sealed with a golden silky rope loosely tied into a knot.  
“Your father was very specific on what he wanted you to learn before you aligned the third line of Sanzu.” Stein spread the scroll on the large lectern. The writing was written in a gold Ink, numbered with instructions.

Kid looked closer, “Is that—”

“His will.” Spirit sighed peeking over his shoulder to get a good read.

The writing grew smaller and smaller the further it reached the bottom. Almost as if Death had ran out of room. It explained an array of things, from finances to who gets his tea set. Kid nearly went googly eyed trying to read all the lawyers talk the further he went down.

“But none of this matters,” Stein said, “At least for now. The part of the Will that concerns us right now is you and your political position. You have a lot of responsibility on your hands but there is absolutely no way you can direct of it completely on your own.”

Kid looked at his teacher, raising a brow, “Well I mean, Death didn’t do things completely on his own? He always had help.”  
“Yes but Death had the ultimate authority. He was open to others suggestions and always considered the needs of other—but at the end of the day— what he said went. And the same goes for you. Death doesn’t want you to have that ultimate authority, not while you go through Jitsuzon-teki.” 

“Jitsuzon-teki?” Kid had never heard of such a thing, it sounded important but nothing he had ever heard escape his fathers mask.

  
“Yes. Um…hold on.” Stein said clearing his throat reaching his back pocket before taking out several palm cards. “I— for the life of me— can’t explain it from the top of my head…so excuse me for having to write it down.” He pushed up his glasses. “_Based on_— oh geez this is small.” Stein squinted as he attempted to read them, stammering the first few words incorrectly before clearing his throat once more and starting again. “Based- on…on the 3 staples of Humanitarian desires— Jitsuzon-teki is when a Shinigami— specifically one that was once an immature Death God— endeavours the human experience to an extreme before he is deprived of it when his responsibility becomes that of the Grim Reaper. His emotional capacity and way of thinking are altered greatly to fit the needs of a God and this naturally conflicts with human emotional capacity. Once Jitsuzon-teki is over— he is fit to be completely independent and rule as the new Shinigami properly. There are stages that comeinwavesandmgnuhngblahblah…” Steins reading when a little more quiet and indistinct as he mouthed the rest of it, “Nah that’s not important. What’s important is basically; you’re still partially human. Physically, you possess Shinigami powers, a Shinigami body, three lines of Sanzu and now are assumed position of the Next Shinigami — but your thought patterns and emotional capacity? Still pretty human.”

It took a while for Kid to understand that he in fact not become a emotionless void similar to that of the Madness of Order, but no in fact it was just merely a different amount of comprehension.  
  
"So what I become desensitised to certain things that humans normally...wouldn't?" Kid asked.

Stein nodded, in partial agreement "I guess there are just certain things humans are not meant to comprehend. What goes beyond our universe, what is in-between our universe and our significance is in comparison to the rest of the universe. Some things are too large and grand for us humans to wrap our little questioning heads around. But a Shinigami can, a Shinigami can accurately calculate and analyse what is beyond because really— you _are_ the beyond. You are the bridge between what everyone sees and feels around them and what lies across the bridge. After humans die— since we all do one day."

Death wasn’t something to be feared, and Kid always knew that. Kid always knew to befriend death, welcome it with warm arms. And no, not just his father— but the act of dying in itself. Jitsuzon-teki was _supposed_ to allow him to do this— at least thats what Stein explained— changing the way he comprehended things— but of course it didn’t come without its awkward side effects.

“It comes in four stages.” Spirit said, “Four _really _problematic stages. You’re going to find yourself being reckless, maybe anti social and…” he looked at his coworker, giving him a suggestive smirk.  
  
“What?” Kid crossed his arms.

“Excitable.” Spirit smiled, “Also alongside that. Death requested that put you through some _Reaper crash course_ as he put it— it’s just intense theory work mainly. It’s once a week and only for the next six or seven months or so. In the meantime still need to handle all the political affairs but we are required to guide you every step of the way until you can handle it entirely on your own.”  
“But I managed to get the witches to sign a treaty? Isn’t that enough for me to handle things on my own?— I mean I’m not denying your help,” Kid retracted his words, feeling heat rise to his cheeks— not wanting to sound condescending like Spirit did earlier. “I mean I still need everyones support but I’m not that dependant,” he paused again, “…am I?”

The Reaper started to play his hands, a new habit he found himself forming every time he got nervous.

“Yes, but you weren’t going through Jitsuzon-teki when you did all that now were you?” Stein insisted, watching the boy suddenly moving his hands to his pockets.

“So it really is problematic huh.” Kid said, “Will I know when it starts?”

“It’s starting right now.” Stein observed. “I can tell.” It was subtle, but he could see it— in the way Kid spoke, his mannerisms— how fidgety he had become.

All of it was very noticeable for those who were looking.


	2. Fateful Findings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Me last chapter: “Im gonna try and stick to the Soul Eater Lore making this a realistic-ish Epilogue to the Manga.”  
Also me: “Lets have the Soul Eater squad watch a Neil Breen film.”
> 
> So as u can tell I’m trying to have them act like actual teens for the first act of this fan fic (as believe it or not I’m about 5 chapters ahead into this fic but I don’t wanna release all at once) which may be a lil different to how they are in the canon, so warning for this chapter as it has more underage drinking!

**Chapter Two — Fateful Findings**

Thinking he would (for any reason) have to spend the night in the Death Room he was surprised to be told to go _‘relax’_ for the for the rest of the evening. He would have thought to have summoned Beelzebub but a familiar car caught his eye from the window adjacent the top balcony.

Liz having just got her license, Kid didn’t hesitate to buy her a flashy car for her birthday. He was certain that Liz damn nearly died that day as he guided her blindfolded to the left side garage.

A silver Tesla with sporting a pink birthday bow (though it wasn’t even her birthday) placed symmetrically in the middle. It was the first thing he went out and bought with the fortune he inherited from his father— with considering how much the inheritance gave him…the Tesla wasn’t a strain on Kid’s wallet _at all._

Regardless of it being Liz’s car she spent half of the time driving everyone else around town as she was the _only_ one with her licence. It was the only downside of such a thing but at least she got to choose the music.

Kid smiled, it was a rather long journey down to the bottom of the DWMA steps but it was worth it for a ride with his weapon. Sure he could have just flown home but these spontaneous trips were always more fun.   
“This is a nice surprise!” He said letting himself into the front seat.

Now that things had calmed down a bit, he had been spending more time with the sisters. Liz in particular. Sometimes he thought about the way he had handled things with them in the past and realised— he could’ve handled the symmetry thing a whole lot better. Of course he had grown and changed significantly throughout the years— but he still could feel the rush of anxiety for when he would spontaneously flash to a seemingly random moment three years ago. It would often hit him late at night, he thought a lot at night which was an issue to his sleeping pattern.

It was always suddenly at 12am where he would jolt up remembering an awkward conversation from last year, or something that he said the other month that could have been taken as rude, or a sudden memory of when his symmetry problem was so bad that he had absolutely no self awareness what so ever.

Kid had started to control it more and more, often choosing to stay quiet when something bothered him— though it resulted in the asymmetry eating him up from the inside. This new found inner self awareness caused him to feel more and more guilty every time he would let symmetry get in the way of anything petty.

“So?” Liz side eyed him as he sat in the front seat. “How was it?”

“Interesting.” Kid clicked his seatbelt in, “I’ll explain it when we get home. It’s just…a lot. Anyway why did you pick me up?”

“It’s movie night tonight remember? At Makas?” Liz had sworn she had reminded the Reaper, after all it wasn’t like him to forget special events—especially something as special as movie night.

Of course though, he did forget. One would guess that maybe movie night had been shoved to the very bottom of his priorities.

“Shit!” He swore, swiping his phone to bring up the messages. “It was our turn to pick a movie wasn’t it?”

Now Kid wasn’t the biggest fan of social media, having only one private account on Instagram where he only let in people he knew. He figured if he was going to have such an influence, the public didn’t need to see him shitposting at 4am. He was in several group chats, one of which having all the members Spartoi which Maka created in the hopes to organise group meetings together— but Harvard and Ox left as soon as they were added, Soul sent selfies of him on the loo and Patty just sent low quality resolution photos of giraffes that she thought she was _‘cool looking.’_ Maka ended up leaving it, and the chat had evolved to _‘Me and the boys’ _which consisted of everyone but the three that left.

His main chat however, was Kid’s favourite: _‘The OG’s’ — _which as one might guess, had the seven of them all having seven different conversations at once, then silence for weeks— until of course when everyone decided chaotically plan Movie Night all at the same time. Kid looked forward to most Movie nights, their abs would all ache from laughing and crying, their stomachs filled to the brim with oven cooked snacks and jelly snakes. But planning it? Oh that was awful.

Who was hosting when? Who was choosing the movie? Is it one stand alone choice? Do we take a poll? Why does no one want to watch Titanic again?

As you can guess, it was most often spent deciding on what to watch. The group usually opted for safe movies that everyone enjoyed. Another superhero movie that popped up on Netflix or a cheap-horror movie if Liz was up for it and sometimes just a classic Ghibli film to warm everyones hearts.

But recently they had started watching terrible low budgeted movies found in the bottom of the pile on IMDb. BlackStar would be the ones to find them and have them torrented on a USB stick proudly bringing them on the night.

It started off with the infamous The Room, but as BlackStar dug deeper they came across other gems like Birdemic Shock and Terror— which was so awful that they couldn’t finish it, Cool Cat saves the Kids which nearly gave Maka an aneurysm and Sharknado which became too frightening for Liz. 

Then BlackStar had finally found it. The gem of all bad low budget films.

The Neil Breen trilogy. 

The ninja thought it was fake at first, but after watching a few clips online on his phone in his bed at 3am quietly chuckling to himself— he was certain that this was the one. This was the ultimate bad film_. _He didn’t even have the heart to torrent them, he actually bought them— they even came autographed by the director himself. This man Neil Breen…was delusional. BlackStar had binged interview after press conference after blog after memo of this man, he was absolutely fascinated by him. He had arrived early to the apartment just to explain Soul about his findings on this director.

“You _need _to watch these.” BlackStar insisted, taking out a blank DVD in a cracked translucent case.  
“An actual DVD?” Soul inspected it closer. "Damn."

While the two boys set up the television, Maka had already started popping the several bowls of popcorn in the microwave. Patty had arrived hours before and was helping Tsubaki blow up the mattresses to lay out on the ground.

“You seriously couldn’t find a pump anywhere?” Tsubaki groaned, out of breath as she covered the tube of the mattress to not let any air escape while she spoke.  
“It was somewhere! But Soul used it and now its gone!” Maka rolled her eyes, spreading out the frozen party pies on the oven tray.  
Patty’s face was red but she diligently kept on blowing into them.  
“Patty slow down!” Tsubaki exclaimed, starting to see the girls face go purple.  
  
Maka peeked out the window to her left, still no sign of Liz approaching the driveway. “Soul!” She called out, “Do you know when Kid’s coming? No ones answering my texts and they’re bringing snacks!”  
“I dunno!” The albino said from the lounge, not really paying attention to Maka’s concerns as he read the sypnosis for the film. “Kid said they'll be here 15 minutes half an hour ago in the group chat. I think they’re getting drinks?”

Kid didn’t drink. He could proudly say he had never had a drop in his life— but due to his status as a Shinigami and the others still being teenagers at heart, he was always the one to get sent out to buy a case of beer. 

“I’m not saying I’m six hundred years old. But I’m a Shinigami. My looks are deceiving….so I’m definitely older than twenty one.” Kid said, not very convincingly to the old man at the antique bottle shop. It was small and charismatic but littered with signs on the importance of carrying ID. Kid wasn’t too sure on how far he was intending to get in this place but it was worth a shot. (No pun intended)

“I wouldn’t care if you were bloody Jesus himself, I need age identification.” The man crossed his arms.

This wasn’t working. Getting drinks as a Shinigami had worked a handful of times but for every one time it did, there were three times it didn’t.

“Look, um—” Kid groaned, he had ran out of options, he took out his wallet taking out $100 and sliding it to the cashier. It was the fourth bottle shop they had been too that night and he was really just wanting to head to the others apartment. He didn’t even know why he went this far to help his friends. For what? A bit of teenage rebellion? Teenage rebellion that he couldn’t even participate in because within minutes he’d find himself hovering over the toilet as the toxins form the alcohol would exert from both ends before he got a chance to feel the teeniest bit tipsy?

Regardless, it worked. And it wasn’t even benefiting him. The cashier looked at the boy, gave him a sweet smile. “Anything else today sir?”

Kid sighed, disappointedly— this was the last time he was doing this. “Yes that is all.”

The things he did for his friends.

“Ayyyyyyeeeee!” Liz let herself in the apartment, the girls squealing and hugging each other as Kid struggled on his own to lift the case up onto the kitchen bench.

“Yeah no one help me! I’m absolutely fine moving all of these on my own. Not like I bribed a cashier for it for YOU TWO.” He said sarcastically to seemingly no one, without an ounce of happiness in his voice. Soul’s eyes lightened at the Heinekens. So much for not being a _‘beer guy.’_  
“Kiddo!” He yelled, moving to drag the Reaper into an embrace, “MMMMWAH!” The albino gave the Reaper a sloppy wet kiss on the cheek. Kid groaned and pulled away. “You brought the Heinies!”  
“I did! I did bring the Heinies! Thanks for stating the obvious!” The Shinigami wiped the spit off his face crouching down to try and sort them symmetrically inside the fridge. Kid nearly passed out at the sight of it. It was clean, but everything was everywhere. Milk on this side, fruit on other. It was all wrong!

  
_Kid this isn’t your fridge you shouldn’t- oh but that banana is too far to the left and the- no no! Kid stop, remember, remember what you said. You weren’t going to drag— oh the milk is too far to the right maybe if I just pushed it— NO! STOP IT STOP! Everything’s wrong, its all wrong its—_

_  
_“Kid?” Soul peeked over the kitchen bench. “What are you looking at?”

The Reaper realised had been crouching staring into the open cold fringe for a solid minute.

“I—… sorry I zoned out.” He responded, starting to arrange the cans. If he couldn’t sort out the rest of the fridge he would at least try and work out the arrangements of the beers.

At least thats what he tried to do.

He wriggled the milk about shoving the broccoli to one side and the meat to the other.

_This isn’t your fridge. This isn’t your fridge. This isn’t your fridge._

The itch came back, inside his head, the symmetry, the itch, the fridge. Everything was wrong, the the fridge was wrong, the Heinie's were wrong.

“Kiddo..” Liz quietly nudged him with her foot, Maka had yet to notice him moving things about and Liz was going to be sure she didn’t. “Why don’t you help Patty set out the blankets?” She suggested.

Distraction, Dominance, Assertiveness. Out of sight, out of mind

“Right, yeah sure.” Kid shut the door abruptly, he knew his weapon was trying to distract him. He knew what she was doing and he wanted to be distracted as much she wanted him to be. It tingled at the back of his head, on the corner of his spine. His throat tightened at the one Heineken that was too far to the left. The yoghurt too far to the right. 

_This isn’t your fridge. This isn’t your fridge. This isn’t your fridge._

Kid found if he actively forced himself to get distracted he could force his mind to move on. So instead he focused on trying to arrange the pillows symmetrically— typical of Kid but far less intrusive than re arranging an entire fridge.

Things had settled down after everyone had gotten comfortable, finding their spots and waiting patiently for the frozen pizza to be cooked and served.

Kid hadn’t a clue on what he was in for, but BlackStar made sure to keep it as vague as possible. 

The movie started and within minutes there was already confusion. As the intro title rolled onto the screen, BlackStar turned to his friends with a devilish grin.

**Fateful Findings**

**Directed by**

**Neil Breen**

**Starring**

**Neil Breen**

“I present..” The ninja grinned proudly, “The worst film ever made!”

Time passed— and all attempts in trying to understand the films plot fell short on its face.

The lounge room was roaring with laughter, Soul nearly running out of breath as the movie continued.

Kid would never have thought he would be laughing at a suicide scene in a film, but it was outrageous. He had forgotten the entire plot leading up to this point, but with how terrible it was there was no real need to follow it at all.  
The music in the film grew dramatic. The protagonist— whose name everyone had forgotten— had just found his friend Jim dead. Framed as suicide he is distraught that Jim decided to take his own life— at least thats what the movie implied.

‘I can’t believe you committed suicide. I cannot believe you committed suicide. How could you have done this? How could you have committed suicide_.’_ Neil Breen said portraying his mild annoyance of antagonist Jim’s suicide through poorly acted dialogue. The fake cornstarch and red dye smothered all over his face. ‘I can’t help you out of this one Jim. After all we’ve been through, I can’t pull you out of this one.’ He said to the corpse….which was breathing?

Kid was in tears, his stomach hurt. Even Maka let out a snort when Neil Breen destroyed another laptop. 

In the ending scene of the _Fateful Finding_s, Neil Breen has press conference outside of the White House with shabbily executed green screen explaining all of the _‘hacked government files_’ that he is about to leak. The group watched in anticipation, BlackStar eagerly cracking open another bottle of beer as the climax of the film unfolded.

‘These files, it will shock you.’ He said — again with poorly acted dialogue. Soon the film cut to a group of oddly placed what can be assumed were the _evil businessmen._  
‘I resign…as the president of…the bank.’ Said of the businessmen his tie disappearing in and out of frame as the green screen glitched.

“PRESIDENT OF THE BANK? PRESIDENT OF THE FUCKING BANK?!” Soul called out.

The President of the Bank’s lines were forced and he took out a gun with an orange tip to his head.

“DON’T DO IT! DON’T DO IT NOOOO!!! AHAHHAHAHAH!” BlackStar yelled, everyone going hysterical as stock sounding gun shot effect boomed and low quality blood splattered behind the green screen.  
One the movie was over the credits rolled, there was only applause and cheering.

  
**Directed by:**

**Neil Breen.**

**Edited by:**

**Neil Breen**

**Written by**

**Neil Breen.**

**Lighting**

**None**

“Who the hell credits no one?! Who credits no one?!” BlackStar nearly choked on his beer, his cheeks hurt form smiling, his throat was raw.

Eventually, everyone had calmed down. The loop of the menu screen music started to get to everyones heads as they chattered amongst themselves.

“Okay okay turn it off!” Maka insisted, searching her surroundings for the remote. “It’s doing my head in.”  
“Man I don’t know I was thinking we watch the other two films…” BlackStar said sheepishly, looking at the two copies that sat next to him.  
“NO WAY!” The other six said in unison, cutting the ninja down.  
“Lets play a game instead!” Patty suggested optimistically, quick to change the subject.

Kid was never too fond of party games, it was when all the darkest secrets were spilt, most embarrassing moments were born— and it was especially an excuse for Patty to make Soul and him kiss during truth or dare.

Not a fan at all.

Though as if he had jinxed himself— the decided game to play tonight did end up being truth or dare.

He took a moment to mentally prepare himself to kiss one of the boys again— something he didn’t particularly enjoy doing in front of the others— all the while had tried to think of daring things to force the girls to endeavour.

The empty beer bottle spun around in the awkwardly shaped circle the group sat at, first landing on Liz who suddenly sported a devilish grin.

“Soul.” She said, the albino nearly going as white as his hair. “Truth? Or dare?”  
Soul gulped, he knew he was done for either way, but picking _truth_ was always the easy one wasn’t it?

“Truth.” 

Wasn’t it?!

Liz couldn’t wipe the smile off her face, “Have you ever had strong romantic feelings for Maka? Yes or no.”  
Soul went from white to red. Red as a beetroot. Even Blair who had awoken from her nap on the ottoman perked her ears up to hear what was going to happen next.  
Maka felt her chest pounding, damming Liz for asking such a personal question. She was flustered, not saying a word as she watched Soul sweat profusely.

  
“Uh- well- I- I mean…” He stammered.

BlackStar huffed, sick of the anticipation, “Yes or no Soul! It’s an easy question!” 

“YES!” Soul finally broke, yet the response from everyone wasn’t that excitable. No one was really that surprised.  
Liz’ smile was stained on her face. Maka had stayed completely silent just watching everyone with her face pressed against her knees in embarrassment.  
“Hey wipe that damn smile off your face!” Soul shouted at the weapon, growling. “Alright! My turn to make _you _say something embarrassing! Liz, truth or dare?!”  
“Nice try— dare.” Liz crossed her arms.  
“I dare you to…to…to…” Soul thought, Soul thought hard. And suddenly as if a lightbulb flicked on above his head his face lightened up, striking a malicious grin. “to go inside room forty-four…for a whole minute!”

Now Liz was the one pale, her eyes a ghostly white.

Room Forty-Four was the neighbouring supposedly empty apartment near the cleaning cabinet. It was rumoured to be haunted— ghosts and spirits of those who had died there generations ago.

There was some truth to the stories— but nothing_ that_ exciting.

The room _was_ empty and there _were_ people that died in there. But Maka hadn’t sensed a soul in the apartment, and the several ‘_mysterious_' deaths were the old couple who rented out the room to students that one day suffered a synced spontaneous heart attack while cleaning it for a house inspection. It was long before Soul and Maka moved in and it was a ghost story that the other neighbours liked to scare new comers with.  
Truth was, Room Forty-Four was now often used for furniture storage from the tenants of the apartment suite. Soul had watched where they kept the key one morning out of curiosity. Mot really knowing what to do with the knowledge, he kept it to himself— until now.

But Maka wasn’t going to tell Liz that, she wasn’t going to tell the true story behind Room Forty-Four. She wasn’t going to tell her that she sensed no Souls in there. Not after the embarrassment Liz put her through.

“Yeah, we’ll go and keep watch and make sure you stay in there.” Maka got up, her brows furrowing— her smirk mimicking Liz’ from earlier.  
“Oh they got you goooooodd sis.” Patty giggled, watching Maka guide the sister out of the apartment.

The others watched Liz tip toeing to the other apartment from the doorway, Soul and Maka following confidently behind. The albino lifted a decorative pot plant that hung from the walls, a small shining golden key glistened underneath it hidden pretty poorly. He unlocked the door, swinging it open with an obnoxious creak. The room was dark, cold— humid. Very humid.

“In you go!” He said confidently, Maka waving the timer set on her phone to Liz teasingly.

“See you in 60 seconds liz!” She slammed the door shut.

Now it was very dark.

“Hello?” Liz called out, shivering now in almost pitch black. The blinds against the windows were pulled down. It didn’t matter anyway though because they were covered top to bottom in faded newspapers stuck on with masking tape that was white at some point, but now was an off cream, peeling on the edges. She was frozen in her spot, she felt the most comfortable with her back against something, her back against nothing made her venerable so as long as she was near the door nothing could hurt her…right? Right?!

“Liz…” Said a voice, at first it was quiet as Liz dismissed it as her imagination, but then it said it again.“Liz…”  
  
“Shut up Soul!” She shouted, “Stop trying to scare me I know its you!”  
  
Soul and Maka still stood outside, thirty-four seconds left and the two looked at each other, nearly dumbfounded.  
  
“Uhhhh- we haven’t said anything.” Maka admitted truthfully, the two hadn’t spoken a word beside a few giggles exchanged back and fourth.  
“Kid?! Kid I know its you! BlackStar?! This wasn’t part of the dare! OH Patty I swear to god if its you-” Liz’ voice was muffled from behind the large wooden door.  
“Everyones been quiet Liz.” Soul crossed his arms, watching as the others had already gotten bored and moved back inside their apartment.

_That’s right, they’re right. It is my imagination. Besides, ghosts aren’t that bad? The little ghost girl on the Black Dragon! She was nice! Remember her? They just want help, they wouldn’t want to hurt me? Besides I’m too pretty to die! They can’t actually—_

“LIZ!” This time it was loud, right in Liz’ face. She could see all of its twisted features, its wretched smile with teeth slightly too long for each other. The lifeless eyes that held no soul behind it. It it didn’t attack her, but it wasn’t friendly either. Liz though, didn’t stick around long enough to try and work out its motives as she had already swung the door open screaming and running through the halls back into Soul and Maka’s apartment.  
The Albino felt his heart leap out of his chest as Liz’s scream pierced the ears of those unfortunate enough to be in close proximity. Though, what she was running from was unclear. Soul felt his body freeze, for what was before him he would never had imagined to be lurking in Room forty-four.

“Oh my god…” Soul gasped.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey so If you've come this far I wanna say thank you so much for reading! If u can please leave a comment or a kudos - all of that encourages me to persevere and write this fic since I procrastinate so much xx thank you !! xx


	3. Any God of Yours

**Chapter 3 — Any God of Yours**

  
“Oh my god…” Soul gasped. “…That’s where the tenants kept our vacuum! They’ve been _borrowing_ that for like six months!” His expression turned sour as he went inside to reclaim the cordless Dyson vacuum.

Liz was found rocking back and fourth in the corner of the lounge, her back faced against the wall.   
  
“Geeze Liz,” He dragged the heavy machinery back into its home in the kitchen corner. “You know it’s not actually haunted right?”  
“OH BULLSHIT SOUL!” Liz shouted, “BULLSHIT! I SAW SOMEONE IN THERE! IT WENT RIGHT TO MY FACE!”  
“…How?” Maka closed the door, “I can’t sense a single soul in there. It’s literally just a storage room.”  
Liz quickly snapped her head towards Kid, “What about you? Couldn’t you sense anything? Because there was something there.”  
“Well…no I didn’t.” Kid said, “But I thought that would ruin the immersion of the dare if I said that. It was pretty funny.”

Liz did not find it funny. “I’m telling you I know what I saw!”

“Could have been your mind playing tricks on ya!” BlackStar getting sitting down, “Cmon I want to get to my turn anyway this is getting boring!"  
The others actually listened, sitting back down to continue the dreaded game that so far wasn’t being forgiving at all.  
“Liz aren’t you playing?” Tsubaki asked sweetly as she watched Liz grumpily wrap herself in a blanket sitting on the ottoman near Blair.  
“Absolutely not. I pass my turn onto BlackStar.” She crossed her arms, her mouth in a deep frown shaking uncontrollably.  
“Aw Yes! It’s BlackStar’s turn! Get ready for BlackStar to fuck you all over!”  
“Can I reverse dare BlackStar to stop talking in third person?” Kid rolled his eyes.

And with that comment, BlackStar had chosen his victim.

“Alright Kid!” He said, turning to him, “That’s not how this game works but I’ll take it. Truth or dare?”

If Kid was going to be honest he wasn’t too keen on playing, he thought about joining Liz but he couldn’t chicken out now. He would be pressured into playing, there would be arguments on who could quit when, BlackStar would get defensive, Soul would complain that he couldn’t skip his turn, Liz would get mad that she had to continue with her dare! Oh dear god!

He had to play.

  
“Dare…” He could live with having to sit in Room forty-four of a minute if it meant he could sit out the next round. Though he wasn’t prepared for whatever BlackStar was planning. Not prepared at all.  
“Unlock your phone and give it to us for three minutes.”  
Kid’s eyes widened, his fist clenching onto the pillow that sat on his lap. Out of everything that they could have done. Why couldn’t he just be forced to kiss Soul again? Why couldn’t he be forced to drink a mysterious drink or stand at the window naked for four minutes. Why couldn’t it have literally been any other dare? There was things in there that he was deeply ashamed of, things that made the pit of his stomach flutter in embarrassment. So many embarrassing poetry written in his notes, random close up photos of his eyes— and his search history.

“No way! That has to be some sort of privacy intrusion!” Kid exclaimed.  
“Theres no rules here!” BlackStar grinned, “Why, you got something embarrassing to hide?”  
“NO! It’s just really private— no I refuse! Can’t we go for the usual?” He insisted, “Make me asymmetrical for a round or something I don’t know!”  
“No. Oh no. This is way better.” The ninja held out his hand, “Bring it over Shinigami-sama.”  
Kids fingers trembled as he typed in his passcode, “Okay but, one rule. If you accidentally turn it off I’m not unlocking it again.” He sighed.  
“Fine.” BlackStar grinned, grabbing it from the Shinigamis hand which clutched on it hesitant to let go.

“Nudes nudes nudes nudes nudes!” Patty cheered.

There were no nudes, thankfully— Kid had made a habit of deleting them as soon as he took them.

The Shinigami would be lying if he said had never gotten lonely some nights. He wouldn’t dare show his face or name on them but occasionally late nights of overthinking caused him to have other intrusive thoughts. It would lead to sexting apps downloaded in the furthest corner of the App Store where he would scroll from person to person saying things he would be shamed if he mouthed aloud.

Soul watched as Kid suddenly suddenly went red. He usually deleted his apps when he finished— but he wasn’t sure if he deleted the one from last night or not. Oh no, oh no this wasn’t good at all oh no this was bad this was terrible this was—

Suddenly though, BlackStar had stumbled onto something worse, much, much, much worse.

“Alright let’s see what Kid listens while crying himself to sleep every night!” 

His music. Oh god no not his music!

“Okay BlackStar! It’s been three minutes!” Kid exclaimed reaching out with his grabby hands before being held back by Patty’s arm blocking him from reaching any further.

“Nuh uh Kiddo! It’s only been about a minute!”

What a snitch.

“_On Heavy Rotation…_” BlackStar read aloud from Kid’s Spotify, “Como La flor by Salena, By your side…Sade….OH! Oh heres the real beauty!”  
“BlackStar please!” Kid moved his torso forward, his cheeks a dark red his entire body tingling in anticipation. Maka let out a little giggle at the reapers cheesy taste in music. Something she would have never expected out of a Death God.  
“Brave New Girl — Britney Spears.”

Kid felt every ounce of dignity shatter, they were guilty pleasures— very very very guilty pleasures.

“Oh dear.” Soul the music elitist looked at the Shinigami who was crying silent tears clutching on the pillow onto as if his dear life depended on it.  
“Hey theres nothing wrong with liking different music!” Tsubaki came into the boys defence.  
“Yeah it’s better than the Grime shit you listen to anyway BlackStar.” Maka rolled her eyes.  
“Um- I wouldn’t go as far as saying that.” Soul said.

Even though the three minutes weren’t up, BlackStar had done enough damage. He gently placed his phone onto the tear stained pillow. “Oh and Kid I’d delete those apps if I were you.” The ninja grinned victoriously, “You’re pretty demanding in there. If you get what I mean.”

Even Maka raised her brows at the reaper, “Kiddo what does he mean by that?”

“Oh…god…” The Shinigami was on the ground now, “I want to die…” He curled up, this was a terrible idea, this was awful.

God he hated this game.

Nothing seemed to have topped BlackStars dare, but they kept on playing for a while.

Even Blair joined in for a few rounds— it was mainly BlackStar daring Maka to grope the neko’s breasts, but regardless it was reasonably tame compared to the other nights they had.

Soon every one got a bit bored, and Liz was still somewhat worked up about her experience in the room next door. Kid wanted to ask her about it— but knew it was entirely her imagination…if there was anything in there he’d surely know. He’d sense it.

Surely?

“Kid I’m telling you I saw something.” Liz said.

It was the next day and the trio had left the sleepover earlier that morning. They always looked rough after a sleepover, the mornings were often silent with all seven of them in a different corner of the house silently scrolling on their phones until one of them made a move to start packing up. This time it was Liz, who was keen to get out of the apartment complex as fast as she could. The further away from Room forty-four she was the better.  
It was nearly the afternoon by the time they had made it to Gallows Manor. Kid was adjusting the paintings before he left for his first class.  
“It was right in my face! I could see every detail if I close my eyes I can see it.” Liz insisted following behind him as he absent mindedly pushed the paintings from left to right trying to balance it in the middle.  
“Liz…I’m telling_ you_ it was your imagination. If there were ghosts in there—”  
“You would sense it.” Liz finished off his sentence, “I know I know! It’s just…unless I was somehow drugged I refuse to believe it was my imagination.”  
“Alright…look…” Kid turned to his weapon, “I’ll ask Stein about it today okay? Maybe he knows about something. Maybe…it had some sort of new Soul Protect on— that instead of masking it as a human soul it completely conceals the Souls existence?”  
Liz nodded, biting her lip. “Yeah that could be it right? Maybe it’s just a…weakened…stationary…Kishin looming in there. Something we can handle!”   
“Exactly.” Kid smiled at her, “Something we can most definitely handle. Especially if it’s stationary.”

Kid was confident that it was her imagination, but felt to ask Stein so he had_ something_ to tell Liz when he got home from his classes that day.

He felt his leg bouncing up and down anxiously as he sat in the Death Room, merely an hour into Steins lecture on the theory behind the Psychological tactics to use at a press conference and he already started to feel his bones ache form boredom. He realised he had recently grown more impatient to lectures of the sorts. Learning by sitting and listening wouldn’t have worked well for him as much as it did say two years ago. With the events that had taken place over the past few years sitting in a classroom felt so foreign to him.   
“Now, you’ve decided to take Soul as your new weapon?” Stein said, Kid glancing up at the teacher.  
“Well, I mean it’s not decided yet— we’ve talked about it but nothing’s official.” The reaper said.  
“You best decide something soon. As Liz and Patty aren’t Death Weapons they aren’t fit to be used by a Shinigami. Souls your best bet and you can’t be without a weapon for too long.” Stein crossed his arms.  
“No, No you’re right. I’ll talk to him tonight. Would we need to train?”  
“Well maneuvering a Scythe should come naturally to you…but it’s your wavelengths. A reapers wavelengths when traveling back and fourth across a weapon could be quite harmfulto your scythe in combat— especially during Soul resonance. You’re going to have to work on that.” He sucked e-cigarette taking a deep inhale, the light reflecting off the left frame of his glasses as the peach favoured fog blew out of his mouth.  
“I see.” Kid said glancing down at his notes that were written nearly at one point but started to grow more shaky the further he went down the page. He felt the itch at the base of his skull— he knew he had re write it soon or his whole note-book would be ruined especially since he used blue pen on black lines. Only black pen could be used on black lines and blue pen could only be used on free-form paper. Everyone knew that.  
“Also…Stein…change of topic but I was wondering if you knew about any new type of Soul protect?”  
“Mm? What do you mean?”  
“Well,” Kid cleared his throat, his mind was filled to the brim with anything else but the movie night, so he had to take a moment to try and actually recall what happened. “Liz thought she saw something that we might think is a Kishin in a supposedly haunted apartment near Maka’s. Though I didn’t detect a thing and neither did she. I mean I want to believe Liz so, what do you think?”

Stein thought. He thought and thought and thought. For a while actually.

Kid was sitting in silence for most of it. Wanting to say something but realised he had nothing else to offer besides interruption to the professor’s thinking.

But soon the Shinigami got impatient.

“Well?”

“I’m thinking.” Stein said.

Kid stayed quiet for a few minutes longer, his leg bouncing higher nearly touching the desk above. 

“Are you sure she saw something?” The professor finally broke the silence— well partial silence as the sound of the desk creaking ever-so-slightly from Kid’s anxious leg was starting to get distracting.

The two went through a long possible list of what it could be, steering past the course work as they got distracted from such an interesting question.

“A Kishin?"

“Possibly but again— their soul would be detectable.”

“A witch?”

“Maybe but they wouldn’t be revealing themselves so easily for the sake of a scare.”

“A banshee?”

“Possibly, they do tend to lurk in dark moist places— but then again it would have most definitely attempted to chew Liz’ face off— and well we can’t have that.”

It was no use, they had gone back to silence, and Kid’s bouncing leg.

  
“Okay.” Stein pushed up his glasses landing on the furthest corner of his thoughts. “The only other possibility I can think of is an Insider.”  
“A what?” Kid raised a brow, he had never heard of such a thing— especially with such an informal name.

“They’re so vague and un-known we don’t even have an official name for them.” Stein re-affirmed my comment. “In fact it’s actually more of a theory if anything. Don’t know how much you’re into conspiracy theories though.”

Kid didn’t_ actually_ believe in conspiracy theories, considering most of them were to conspire against the authority— which he was apart of. Though occasionally he’d find himself down a rabbit hole of clickbait article after reddit forum after youtube video essay after podcast of the Michigan Blue Hell theory or the Illegal German e-books theories. Not that he’d openly discuss it out loud with anyone though.

“A what?” Kid spoke up after a moment.

“Well Kid,” Stein sat on his chair, tilting his head in anticipation, “have you ever thought about what being manifests into after their soul is destroyed?”

“Well they’re nothing aren’t they?”

“At least that’s what’s supposed to happen. There’s a Soul Theorist who say otherwise. They believe that the Soul travels to realm with their only goal of trapping others in with them. Their presence isn’t detectable because they don’t have a Soul. They’re just beyond our understanding I’d imagine. But…it’s only a theory.” Stein told the Reaper. “Besides if something like that were proven true it would completely change our entire understanding on Soul and Soul theory, it would completely mess up the world Order and hierarchy— so even of such things existed, I doubt Death would be the one to tell the world about it in DWMA’s text books.”

Kid’s leg suddenly stopped bouncing.

The room growing too quiet like when air-conditioning suddenly gets switched off after along heated day.“Because it conflicts with balance…doesn’t it?” Now he was curious, now he wanted to know more.

“_Sure,_ you could say that. But,” Stein got up, chuckling as he put Kid on the hook, only to yank it back out and throw the fish back to sea, “chances are what Liz saw really was just her imagination. It wouldn’t surprise me if she maybe just had too much to drink. Insiders are a little tin-foil-hatty if you ask me.”

“Do you know anything else?” Clearly Kid couldn’t understand that Stein had thrown away the bait.  
“Ki-” The professor paused, “Shinigami-sama, they’re not real.When a soul is destroyed it becomes nothing more than the air that surrounds us. But I get it. Conspiracy theories are fun. Anyway, we really need to get back on subject. I have a list of things I need to cover today.”

It was clear that they were going no where with this. Kids spark of curiosity was being pushed aside with the importance of public image in its relationship with sponsorships. Blah blah blah he was sure he could figure out how to work through a press conference one way or another. It’s not like while he stands fidgety in front of flashing cameras a million questions asked at once he was going to recall any of Steins information.

He tried his hardest to retain some of it, as he knew that his first press conference was creeping closer and closer.

The general public had mixed feelings about the treaty with the Witch Order, a lot bringing up quite justifiable concerns if their word was enough to keep order. After all it just a piece of paper. Kid was certain he could trust the Witches but now all that was left was getting Death City— and well the rest of the world— to do so as well. Kid had tried to prepare himself for the controversy surrounding it. He had checked every crease of his cloak, the skull clip on his collar.

No one could blame him for being anxious on his first press conference well…ever. 

“Kid come here!” Liz squinted, patting powder on his face.

The day had finally come, after three days of anticipation, over preparing and panic attacks— the day had finally arrived. The clock was ticking further and further, it was 11:19AM and with the press conference starting at 11:30AM Kid was having his whole body tremble with anxiety. He was one panic attack away from shaking his body into some press conference induced seizure.

Kid coughed and choked, “No—Liz!” He moved away from her grabby hands and big fluffy brush.

“Even the Shinigami isn’t immune to oily pasty out skin now stay still!” She brushed it over his nose, and across his cheeks.  
“Are you calling me pasty?” Kid screwed his nose trying to not inhale the mattifying powder.  
“I might be, yes.” She stood back, framing his face with her fingers before going back in.

11:22AM

Damn, two minutes already? How did that even happen? How much powder was on his face? And more importantly had any gotten on his cloak? He hoped not or that seizure was starting to look promising.

11:25AM

Now Kid was desperately smearing gel in his hair trying to make his bangs symmetrical without looking too plastic like.

Kim tapped him on the shoulder, “They’re asking for us to come out now!”

It only seemed natural that Kim was appointed ambassador of the Witches. Having to hide her identity for the longest time the Shinigami felt it was right that she be the representative to prove that not all Witches were the same. Kim felt passionate about her cause, and also, the pay was quite good.

The Reaper fiddled with his hands under his cloak as the assistant guided the two out to a conference hall— cameras flashed and people spoke over another, so many words and so little time to articulate.  
Glasses of water sat at the bench— Kid has a flash of panic as he eyed it moving towards his seat. What if he spilt it? That would be terrible. What if he drank and slurped too loudly? Everyone would hear. What if he drank and choked coughing the water on everyone around him? That would be worse.

Maybe its best that he left the water be.

The chitter chatter dyed down, but the flashes did not. Kid eyes couldn’t adjust in time with each shot, and he found himself seeing floating green squares rather than actual people.

Stein and Spirit had their own seats, Spirit was already down to his second glass before the announcer conducted the crowd to calm down.

“Shinigami-Sama, how do you plan on assuring the treaty with the Witches won’t broken?” Was first to be asked across the board, with the murmurs that trickled in the crowd Kid had assumed several reporters wanted the answers to that question. It was the one he had rehearsed the answer too over and over again and yet, as the question was asked he had to take a moment to actually recall what he had planned to say.

“We can only trust their word.” He finally said, “Their assistance on the battle of the Moon ensured us that this treaty is stable. The conditions that are agreed upon have so far proven successful.”  
  
“What do you intend on doing if they break it though?”

Kid cleared his throat, that glass of water starting to look tempting. “Well, depending on the situation— if its an individual Witch or a larger campaign conspiring against the DWMA we will act accordingly just like we have with other interferences in Maintaining order.” _Geeze, _Kid thought, _that was a long sentence. _“Though this backup plan isn’t specific because our treaty is with Witches. The punishment for breaking a treaty remains the same no matter who the offender is.”  
“Good answer Kid.” Kim smiled at him covering her hand over the microphone.  
  
So far so good.

Another reporter raised his hand. “Kimial Diehl, the rivalry between Witches and humans has been going for over 800 years. How could you possibly believe that within the past six months they would suddenly have a change of heart? Surely there must be something in this treaty that they’re benefiting from.”

“Well,” Kim said, “I don’t think it was a change of heart. Just a change of perspective.”

Now the crowd was talking, murmuring louder.

“The revival of the Kishin, as you all know was disastrous. It brought out the best and worst in everyone. I think….” She paused, she paused for a while. Kid’s heart raced as he saw Kim pausing for longer than she should’ve. Fiddling her thumbs and avoiding eye contact with the crowd.

Though finally, she spoke up.  
  
“The Kishin Asura brought us an example of absolute chaos. He showed us the extreme of the Madness which not even Witches— who have a desire for destruction would wish upon the world. I know you all might be thinking about the Witches the Gordon sisters, how they caused all of this— but I’ll have you know that they were outed by their own kind long before the revival. I cannot say that the bond between humans and Witches will ever fully smooth over in our lifetime. But I can say, and I _know _that no matter how much they may resent humans, it will never be enough to wish the world to be ruled with madness and unfortunately it took the Gordon sisters to make them realise that. I believe that the new generations of Witches are changing for the better with this new found perspective for the benefit of brighter, peaceful future.”

There were scattered claps, before the whole room joined in. The reporter smiling as he wrote into his notebook hastily. It seemed that that was the answer everyone had hoped for. Kim was quick to swig the glass of water the moment she stopped talking to stop her dry anxious throat from closing up.

The board asked more questions, some Kid couldn’t have answered without the help of his former teachers beside him. He would occasionally glance at the clock, feeling every question to be more and more intrusive.

“How can we ensure that you as the new Shinigami aren’t keeping anything secretive from the public?” One reporter asked. 

All eyes now glared at the Reaper, “Expand on that please?” He asked.

“Well, Lord Death kept a Kishin under the DWMA without the general public knowing for hundreds of years. Such knowledge should be available to the general public should it not? After all the safety of Death City and the world lays entirely in your hands.”

He was right, the reporter was absolutely right. And Kid dammed him for it. He had always trusted his father to make the right decisions even in his moments of doubt. 

But Kid couldn’t stay quiet forever.

“Well, my father— had a lot of reasons for keeping that a secret. If the location of the Kishin was ever revealed to the general public it could have been easier to revive him….Of course he was revived through other reasons and inside information, but it was made much more difficult due to my father keeping it to absolute secrecy. It wasn’t for the purpose of keeping everyone in the dark but for keeping everyone safe. That was always his priority.” Kid crossed his arms, leaning back on his chair slightly as he watched the reporter scribble on his notepad.

The press conference had ended far later than the Reaper had hoped. And after being borderline insulted several times with some reporters even questioning his symmetry problem— he was happy to finally drink the glass of water he had been so anxious to swig.

“I think that went well!” Liz smiled, welcoming him back to the backstage area pulling him into a welcoming hug.  
“Yeah! You all did great guys!” Patty congratulated the four of them, Spirit taking a moment to neaten himself in the mirror.  
“Yes, Kim especially your little speech there is bound to be put on the paper tomorrow!” The death Scythe adjusted his tie, “Now you all have about 10 minutes to fix yourself up, we still have to take photos for the press!”  
  
Kid groaned, first in annoyance, then in fear as Liz whipped up her big fluffy brush again.

It was a long tiring day and Kid stayed mainly quiet in the car ride home. He had found himself enjoying car rides more and more— they were peaceful in his big chaotic life.

“I’ve noticed you’re using Beezlebub less and less.” She looked at Kid in the mirror viewing the backseats, he was fiddling with his thumbs as he looked out the window. Patty had already fallen asleep in the front with dried drool dribbling down her chin and even as Liz driven through several road humps she still was sound asleep.  
“I guess I’m just enjoying car rides more.” Kid admitted, side eyeing her in the mirror with a quick smile.  
“Well I mean what can I say— it’s an expensive car I’d be dammed if you didn’t enjoy the car ride in here.” Liz said.  
“_You’d_ be dammed? I think you’re forgetting who payed for it.” He chuckled.  
“Well who are you, my sugar daddy?”   
“I’m a sugar daddy but instead of sexual favours you just have to put up with my symmetrical endeavours.” The two of them laughed, if he couldn’t over come his little problem— at least he could joke about it.

Once they had gotten home Kid realised the bedroom hadn’t ever looked so welcoming before but now with his tired body he fell face first onto the mattress. The reapers back made a satisfying loud crack as it pressed against the sheets. As he was the Shinigami there really was no physical reason for him to sleep anymore. It wasn’t a process that happened overnight but slowly he found himself becoming less and less sleepy. Though Kiddid find it a little funny that regardless of battles after battles it was a press conference that truly drained the life out of him—whether he’d sleep on it or not. He wanted to stay there he truly did, but he couldn’t go to sleep properly if he didn’t go through his ridiculously extensive nighttime routine that made a Korean 10 step beauty routine look minimal.

**Step 1 **— Retrace your steps around your bedroom twice so that each side of the room as been stepped on a symmetrical amount of times before you leave to the bathroom to continue your routing.

**Step 2 **— Wash the left side of the face before the right and make sure to keep the amount of moisturiser the exact same or I’d have one side slightly more hydrated than the other.

**Step 3** — Make sure the toilet paper on each side of the toilet is of equal thickness— and if not dispose of any toilet paper necessary to be sure that they are both symmetrical.

**Step 4 **— Make sure that each tooth gets brushed eight times and if one side of my gums start bleeding make sure my stop it as soon as it started or make the other side bleed as w—

“Kid can you go to sleep please!” Liz eyes squinted into the bathroom, “I’m trying to get some shut eye and all I can hear is you brushing your teeth for the past ten minutes!”

“I neef to cleath onfe more toof.” He continued to brush.

**Step 5 ****— **Always leave out a tin of tuna on the centre window for the battered and oddly symmetrical stray cat that occasionally visits me.

**Step 6 ****— **make two laps around the bed to ensure that everything has been covered symmetrically before hopping into bed from the centre.

**Step 7**— Make sure you turn both lamps off in the exact same time or you’ll have to do this all over again.

Kid now laid in bed, nearly having not turned off both lamps at once he was relieved he didn’t have to perform that all over again. He was flat on his back, hands enclasped on each other like a corpse at an open casket funeral. His ceiling wasn’t anything special, but he often liked to fantasise about it opening up to another world, where the colours were slightly brighter, the people were slightly happier. Or he would go down the other route of purposely scaring himself by imaging Cthulhu breaking through the gyprock and munching his face off.

Either way he always feel asleep facing up towards the ceiling. What position he would be when he woke up however was an entirely different story. He would often damn himself for waking up and looking like such an asymmetrical mess— so he had created a new rule on not looking in a mirror for the first 10 minutes of the day until he could at least brush his hair.

**Step 8 **— Count to eight eight times.

This was maddening, he knew it was maddening. He knew it was useless— a routine set solely by him and only him. The world wouldn’t crash and burn if he brushed his molars 7 times instead of 8, or if he only retraced his steps one and a half times instead of two. This was ridiculous, surely it was? It had to be. No one else could see the logic in it besides him and if he didn’t do it he would feel an itch— no not a an itch— a sting. A deep sting that traveled in his veins. It would tingle the bottom of his spine before shooting up like a large bolt of electricity ready to fry a Shinigami’s brain.

He would have liked to continue thinking on the logistics of his odd problem if he didn’t feel the sinking feeling again. He wanted to break himself out of it but his body felt paralysed, his hands still enclasped with each other. Further and further into the mattress, Cthulhu form the ceiling would have been more of a promising outcome than whatever the mattress was taking him too. He didn’t have time to panic before his eyes were wiped by a sickening black. 

Then Yellow.

“This place again?” Kid muttered aloud still in his pyjamas sitting on the moist carpet. His feet cringed at the feeling of his socks being slightly damp (Because he was most definitely the type to sleep with socks on.) He had to be dreaming, certainly, this was lucid. This must be lucid.

The buzzing of the fluorescent yellow tubes started to irritate him, though through finally gaining the strength from his tired body he pushed himself up rubbing his eyes hoping that when they opened he would be back in his room. 

But no, of course he wasn’t.

Kid thought maybe it was best he wondered, see what this dream had to offer him. So far it had offered him a large room, with openings to what looked like other rooms. But when Kid ventured fourth he found himself in a room much like the one before.

“Huh?” Kid retraced his steps. The room was just as he had left it, but the other rooms were looking quite the same. Soon panic took over, the Shinigmai started to pick up the pace, moving through rooms but each offered nothing different. Kid walked, he walked and walked and walked and he walked some more, then some more. Nothing but the sound of the soft humbuzz of the fluorescent lights above him and his mild tinnitus lingering in his between his ears. The sound of carpet underneath his feet became a burden— they started to annoy him.

With a sudden wave of dread the reaper felt his neck tingle. At first he thought it was the sound of his own breathing, but upon holding his breath he could hear something else. It’s breaths were heavy, its breaths was close.

Kid felt frozen in his spot, too scared to make a sound, but it was too late because it sure as hell heard him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: If u bothered to read my tags (which I never fully do with fics so I don’t expect u too either hahahah) I entered the tag: 'the Backrooms (CreepyPasta.)’  
That creepypasta— https://i.4pcdn.org/x/1557883770437.jpg was the main prompt of this fic. You’ve probably seen it before but I’m just letting ya’ll know I did not come up with the concept. I have added (yet to be revealed) lore on how it relates to the Soul Eater universe but the image and the text is not mine!  
Also, I am 100% aware that it can be a meme sometimes but the concept is so unsettling and it intrigues me. The reddit page for it is also really interesting for all the canon lore and RP so hopefully you can look past all of the shitposts lmao


	4. The Waiting Rooms

**Chapter 4 — The Waiting Rooms**

Kid had been hiding for about an hour now. He didn’t know what he was hiding from, but he had been sitting in a far corner of one of the many yellow rooms for a while. He had pulled his hair, pinched his skin, bit himself— everything in an effort to wake himself up but all he could do was sit. What had he deserved to be trapped in such a place? Such an awful bright place. The lights started to get blinding, their buzzing obnoxious— but the other breathing? It wouldn’t go away. Kid could hear it in the room adjacent to his. It had been there almost waiting for the other to make a move. Unless it truly was him? It could have been his own breaths surely. Maybe he was just being paranoid. Maybe this was some stressed-induced fever dream. It wouldn’t suppose him if he just needed to lay off dairy for a while in order to not promote having these funky kind of dreams.

Maybe all he could do was ride it out? Maybe staying in the one place was stopping him from letting the dream show him where he truly needed to go? After all nothing could hurt him in a dream.

Yeah! Yeah! Why was he being such a little wuss? He was the Shinigami and he was about to be defeated by some fever dream? Some little monster form the depths of his imagination? Whats the worst his mind could give him anyway— anything asymmetrical probably. Nothing he hasn’t had nightmares about before!

Kid pushed himself up, feeling his socks grow more damp under the slightly wet carpet.

God it was so gross.

He moved further into the maze— though to imply it was a maze meant that there was a way in and a way out— and currently Kid wasn’t too sure if any of those things existed. But with no time to contemplate that, his ears opened suddenly, there was a soft clicking which was subtle at first. He couldn’t tell where it was coming from but he knew it was close.

The breathing had long gone at this point, and it was then the Shinigami realised…how quiet it had become. The walls became more narrow— not particularly claustrophobic but enough for him notice the space had gotten smaller. 

His jaw started to tremble, every gut and muscle twisting and turning inside him with every inch of his skin sprouting goosebumps. He had never felt so frozen in his life, his breaths were shaky hardly escaping his mouth as he wouldn’t dare make a noise louder than a whisper. 

Something was behind him, and there was no way he could bring himself to look.

He could feel it. It was tall, eight foot at least. Kid couldn’t see its eyes but he knew they were looking right down at him. It didn’t speak, it didn’t need too, nothing but the sound of its body squelching against the carpet was audible.

Finally, to Kid’s dismay he glanced. Just to take a peep.

It’s body twisted and turned up onto the ceiling. It’s head hung on a spindly flaccid neck that bent at the roof because it was too tall to sit properly. It was then, that Kid noticed its faint scent of burnt rubber like an outdated rural train station oozing with a black tar that looked sticky to the touch. He couldn’t scream, for the Shinigami didn’t know how. At least not in that very moment. It was within a split second he regained his logical instinct to run, run further and further into the yellow. The creature slurped as it moved, it was faster than it looked and a trail of black muck was following it behind as it’s face made the most malicious of grins. All uncanny and wrong.

Kid ran, he ran and ran and ran and the corridor seemed to be going on forever. Every so often he would bump into the walls as they slowly started to move inwards. The thing showed no signs of stopping on its quest to get the Shinigami. Was it planning on eating him? Was it planning on just killing him? What was it’s objectives? Why did it just stand behind him? Why didn’t it just kill him then?

Faster and faster. Kid’s socks were soaked. The carpet had gone from humid and moist, to wet, puddles of murky water so thick that it didn’t sink into the carpet. _How much longer now?_ He thought. The thing kept on moving, it’s mouth opening making the an inhumane moan that echoed further into the halls, showing that it had a lot further to go before it ended.

  
“FUCK!” Kid swore, slipping and falling on a particularly slimy spot on the carpet. He wailed in pain as his ankle made a cringe-worthy_ snap! _He squinted his eyes shut, his whole bottoms soaked in the sticky mush of a carpet. Pressing his back against the side of the halls he waited for the thing to catch up with him, waiting for his inevitable death so he could wake up from this fever dream finally. He was sick of running, he wanted his Lucky Charms.

What he thought was a gyprocked wall came to Kids surprise when his back sunk into it, clipping right through. Further he fell and for a second he thought it as all over. He was going to wake up in his comfortable mattress, he was going to wait ten minutes to brush his hair before he would look into a mirror, he was going to training with Soul like they had planned for in the morning. It was all going to be okay.

It was going to be okay.

He felt his body travel through plaster. To his horror his eyes opened, he could see the ceiling in his bedroom but looking down at his body and he was shocked to find only his torso was visible. The rest of his body was cut off, but there was no blood, no guts. Just his lower half emerged in the headboard, it took a moment for Kid to realise he had not been sliced in two— but that his legs were still on the other side. Still in the yellow damp place. It was a quick decision to pull the rest of his body out. His ankle in agony, and his pyjama bottoms half soaked.

Kid was most definitely his room, it was morning. It was his mattress. It was his house. It was his bed. Yet he could only gasp, quickly jolting forward to tap the headboard but it was rock solid. As solid as the wood it was built from.

  
“What the hell?!” He shouted out loud. “Hey! Hey what’s going on?!” His fists pounded on the panes. Screaming and shouting, though it was cut short by a startled Patty bursting through to his room  
“Kid what are you doing?!” The younger weapon could only speculate that the press conference from the day before had gotten to him somehow.  
“THE WALL THE WALL I WENT THROUGH AND— THE YELLOW AND— THE THING IT…” Kid cried, his bed was stained with the stickiness from his pyjamas.   
“Um….” She said, rather dumbfounded, “Elaborate?”

Kid was lost for words, still shaking and physically distressed. “I…I was dreaming, and— a-a-and I thought I was dreaming and I was in this place and it was all yellow—”  
  
“Ooooh!~ I like that colour!”  
  
“Patty please!” He shouted, “It was yellow— it was empty. It was— god it was so eerie. And this thing chased me and! And I thought it was a dream but I escaped through the headboard and I’m here! And I’m all wet and I was wet in the dream and I fucked my ankle and—” Kid was quick to pull his leg out, yanking the soaked sock off his foot to reveal his ankle purple and bruised.  
“You sleep with your socks on?” The weapon giggled.  
“Patty look! It happened in the dream but It wasn’t a dream it wasn’t— Oh god what was it? I— I thought, I thought I was going to die in there I thought—”  
  
Patty smiled sweetly at her meister, “Don’t be silly, you can’t die!”  
Kid got up, much to his regret as his ankle quickly burst a shot of pain up to his leg. He let out another cry, before his teeth grit. “I KNOW! THATS WHY ITS TERRIFYING.” He held onto his ankle. “I need to tell Stein. This isn’t right!”  
  
With his Shinigami body, his ankle started to return to normal and within an hour he could walk again. He was thankful he could recover from something that a normal person would have to take weeks off to do the same. Though it wasn’t his ankle wasn’t his concern, not as much as his little experience was.

“I'd like believe that you saw what you saw Shinigami-Sama…But…I don’t know. Escaping through your headboard? I just makes no sense. You're certain you're not getting maybe some sleep paralysis? It is quite a stressful time for you.” Stein said. It was later that morning, there was plans to train with Soul but Kid was too distressed— he knew he had a schedule to stick too but he couldn’t concentrate without flashes of that thing popping up in his head. The Death Room had its familiar breeze that was soft yet just enough to be uncomfortably chilly. Just the way his father liked it.

“Yeah that is kinda weird hey. But dude you are also going through that Juzu-Tekken thing.” Soul scratched the back of his head, Kids expression neurotic and wide eyed.

“It’s a bit more than weird!” Kid flailed his hands, “Even for us that’s more than weird! What if I’ve discovered a portal to another dimension? What if— WHAT IF WHAT LIZ SAW WAS ONE OF THOSE…THINGS! Oh! Oh my god it all makes sense now! Oh yes! It must be a crack or a portal and those things are escaping somehow and and—”  
Stein moved grabbing Kid’s wrist which was an inch away from hitting Soul with all of its flailing. “Kid, please calm down.”

“Stein— Stein I can’t! This— the insiders….the book. Wheres that book! You said there was a book? The conspiracy theory one! What’s the book called!”

Soul groaned fed up with all this conspiracy talk, “Dude! I don’t know what crack your smoking, but I’m here on a Saturday and we need to train to perform soul resonance—”

“No!” Kid pulled his wrists out of the teachers grasp, “I know what I saw. I’m not leaving this! I need to kno—”  
“DEATH THE KID!” Stein’s hand raised high, electricity crackled as a shot blew through the Reapers stomach.  
“Ow!” Kid whined, gripping his tummy frowning as he rubbed it in circles, his body stinging from impact.  
“Shinigami-sama, you just had your first press conference yesterday, you’re scheduled to train today. Tomorrow you have a meeting with the Witch Council and the day after that you need to start organising paperwork have the Death Scythe of Europe’s position rearranged!” Stein said, his glasses glowing a bright hue of yellow as they stared down at the Reaper.  
  
Kid couldn’t look up, he felt embarrassed. How could he let himself become this way? He had priorities, he had responsibilities. He couldn’t spend his time investigating some conspiracy theory now could he.

“I know but…but Stein what if this is something else. Something dangerous?” He said, completely disregarding my last statement.

Stein pulled that face, his thinking face. The two knew that face and knew it meant they were going to be there for a while, waiting, watching. Eager to hear what the professor had to say.

“We’ll talk after training. Besides I have something new I really wanna give try out!” Stein grinned, a change of expression with his voice growingexcited. Though Stein excited about anything could only mean bad news.

The school felt odd being so quiet, though with the occasional students walking through for the weekend classes— the arena on the front was mainly large and empty. Liz, Patty and Maka were insistent on coming and watching, even bringing snacks hoping to see the two fail magnificently at their first attempt at resonating. All in good spirits though.

“So, Soul. There’s been something I’ve been meaning to tell you.” Stein his hands enclasped in front of his mouth before they pointed directly at the young Death Scythe. “The first few goes of this perhaps won’t be going your way.”   
“What does that mean?” Soul stood nervously next to Kid. Having been eager to fight all day he suddenly felt an onset of nausea from sudden worry. He didn’t plan on being severely injured and he had hoped that today he wouldn’t be killed by some wavelength induced attack. He had been at the front of the school more times than he could count but now there was a somewhat uneasiness too it. Not from anything in particular— just the dread of uncertainty. He had known Maka was acting funny since there was talk of Soul being The Reapers new weapon. With one quick glance up to Maka at the steps—who he knew was there for support— he could see a glimmer of sadness besides those grassy eyes. He smiled at her softly, enough to receive a small smile back but a quick glare from his teacher.

“Well…” Stein pushed up his glasses, clearing his throat to grab the Scythes attention. Soul responded quickly, turning his head back to him. “It means you’re adapting to Shinigami-sama’s wavelengths. I know you have done that plenty of times with in the past with a chain resonance— but now that he’s a True Shinigami things are a little different. Resonating with can sometimes…backfire if not done correctly. Your souls are clearly compatible but there is also a big chance that his wavelengths will channel through you but then instead of going through back to the weapon…it’ll just attack you instead.”

“That sounds promising.” Soul gulped.

Kid had hoped this would distract him from a bit, distract him from whatever the hell happened the night before. It wasn’t long before he started to feel the familiar goosebumps prickle on his skin. Occasionally he could smell a flash of the awful rubber smell. It would come in small waves, the source unknown.  
The Shinigami having zoned out looking at a particularly pretty pebble on the ground below realised he had been looking into another world.  
“Well are you two ready?” Stein said, snapping his fingers to bring Kid back into reality. _Geeze was everyone spacing out today?_ He thought.  
“Wha-? No!” Soul exclaimed, but it was far too late. The teacher snapped his fingers a second time and slid into the shadows, disappearing form the others sight.

The courtyard was quiet. 

“God dammit!” Kid grit his teeth. “Stein where are you!”

Soon there was a small rumble, it started off soft, only felt in the heels of their shoes on the rubbled ground. Then it got louder, stronger, faster.

“Oh shit!” Soul gasped. A large hairy bear-like beast who stood at at least nine-feet tall with blood thirsty eyes and a mouth that drooled onto the pavement, was charging at them.   
“Now, Soul!” Kid held out his hand, the weapon grabbing it and with a flash of light he was in scythe form. He was heavy, but not as heavy as he expected. Kid lifted him up, the beast growling and roaring ready to slice his first attack. It wasn’t the first time Kid had held Soul in weapon form as the Shinigami wasn’t exactly _just hoping _to get it right during their very first battle. So far though, it had only been one or two test dummy’s and making sure that their Soul’s wouldn’t react negatively with each other. So far so good?

Kid brought the Scythe down right on the beasts face slicing it’s mouth. Blood spewed everywhere spraying on the Meister. Kid groaned in annoyance, his shirt was ruined.  
“HEY!” He growled, feeling his itch again— though instead of crying about it he used it to fuel his attacks, “YOU RUINED MY SHIRT!” He held Soul outwards, letting out a battle cry as he charged towards it.

The girls sat on the steps, bento boxes in their lap watching the fight play out. Maka stayed mainly quiet, poking at her sashimi watching the salmon wobble under her chopstick. The fight was interesting, but not enough to distract her from her slightly jealous thoughts. She tried to not let it get to the best of her— but for some reason seeing Kid swing her former partner around like that made her feel quite uneasy. She cringed seeing him use him differently than she normally world, swinging left to right instead of right to left, or approaching the beast from a different angle than she normally would. Maka knew that everyone had their own fighting style, but it just felt weird seeing Kid’s translated onto a Scythe.

  
“Yeahhhh! Go Kid and Soul! Wooooo!” Patty cheered, clapping her hands excitedly with grains of sushi rice stuck to her chin.

Liz watched the spectacle in awe, though her eyes trailed to the female Meister poking at her food.

“You gonna eat that?” She asked, chuckling moving closer to her friend. Maka shook her head, picking up the last piece of sashimi and popping onto Liz’s box.

The grunts of the fight were loud, but not loud enough to overtake their conversation.

“Oh cheer up buttercup!” Liz nudged her, “I know what you’re upset about.”  
“What?” Maka said, looking up, “I’m fine just tired.” She let out a fake yawn, stretching her arms outwards and collapsing it by her side.  
“Ah yes, the typical ‘_I’m fine just tired.’_ Never heard that one before Maka.”  
“Well what do you want me to say Liz?” Maka crossed her arms, “It’s just weird seeing Soul…”  
“Not having _you_ as a technician?”  
“Y-yeah…” She looked down at her boots.  
  
“LET’S GO SOUL RESONANCE!” The boys shouted in sync, grabbing the attention from the girls quickly pausing Maka’s wallows to see the spectacle. The beast was weakened, all it took was one final strong blow and it would drop dead. She felt her heart race seeing their souls swell and expand syncing their wavelengths. She gripped onto Liz’s arm, part of her feeling proud at her partner. She couldn’t help but have a small smile spread on the corner of her lips.

Though, there was a crackle, a large crackle that sounded like nails scraping on a rusted metal plate. It made everyone in close proximity cringe, and with a large flash of light Soul flew out of the Shinigami’s grasp, transforming back to a human mid air and collapsing on the ground.

“Soul!” Maka got up, Liz grabbing her arm and holding her back.

Soul's eyes had rolled to the back of his head with blood dribbling from his nose and mouth. Kid now weaponless, was quick to move in front of the unconscious scythe. Shielding his weapon with his with his arms open, he braced himself for impact.

Then suddenly, the beast froze. Literally. It’s expression was skewered and its fist was held high, paused like a film.

“Oh dear.” Stein emerged from seemingly nowhere, hovering over Soul’s unconscious body.

Kid would have liked to questioned the oddly positioned bear but Soul brought more of a concern. “Stein is he going to be alright?!” He exclaimed turning quickly to inspect his body.  
“Yeah yeah he’ll be fine. Just give him a few minutes…” Stein tilted his head, “Well…what did you think?”  
“What?” He said, his eyes more focused on his weapon on the ground rather than anything else.  
“The prototype! It’s a beta of a three dimensional hologram that can mimic soul wavelengths and attacks. I mainly want to use it for the N.O.T class so they don’t kill themselves while training!” Stein grinned. Kid’s expression not mirroring his in the slightest. He looked down at his shirt which was splattered with the blood from before, and to his amazement he watched as the red faded from the fabric.

“…What?” Stein said. “You didn't actually think I'd face you up with real danger on your first go?”

“Are you kidding me? That’s exactly what I thought you would have done.”

“Well, I mean sure, you’re right. But times have changed, new health and safety regulations.”

Soul groaned, rubbing his head he was ignored for a while as he slowly awoke, “Did we…did we kill it?” He said, his eyes lidded.

“Oh hey Soul welcome back.” The teacher said as Shinigami let out his hand to help the scythe up.

“No,” Kid said, “we didn’t.”

  
“Soul!” Maka shouted again, finally being let go from Liz’s grasp running towards the arena. “Soul my goodness! Are you alright?”  
“Yeah Maka it’s cool we’re cool it— Sweet Jesus what the hell is that?!” He pointed to the beast, still frozen in its spot. “Was that what we were fighting?”

The Creature flickered, glitching in its spot before flashing onto a T-pose frozen in its spot.

“Yeah pretty neat huh.” Stein placed his hand on the bears hide, giving it a gentle pat. “Alright well lets try this again! Maka I’d suggest you move out of the way.”  
Maka frowned, being shoved aside by Stein she sheepishly made her way back to the steps.  
“Can I like, touch that?” Soul said, moving closer to inspect the hologram, before it flashed a blue light— disappearing into thin air. “Uh?” He exclaimed in confusion.  
“C’mon you guys! You’re loosing focus!” Stein called out back to hiding behind the pillar. Familiar rumble form earlier starting to tremble between his feet.

“Okay okay.” The reaper took deep breaths, psyching himself up. “Okay, Soul. Lets do this!”

**2**

Soul must have passed out at least four times before Stein decided to call it quits. The albino’s body had bruised trailing up his torso and his left eye had a burst blood vessel making the white of his eyes a bloodshot red. Soul felt weakened, and his body stiff.  
“I’m sorry Soul…” Kid frowned, looking at his battered partner who had to take a moment to sit down, hunched over the pavement. “Stein I think any more attempts at resonating and we’re sending Soul to an early grave.”

Maka sat by her partner, rubbing his back in circles as the albino felt himself gagging with seemingly nothing to vomit up.

“Yes, you’re right.” The professor said, “You two have done an outstanding job today. Even if it didn’t work your scythe techniques are improving! And now at least we know the beta works.”

“_Oh_ it works alright.” Soul groaned, spitting out gunk from his mouth that was cut on the corners.

It was most definitely home time. Though Kid still hadn’t forgotten his underlying anxieties regardless of the eventful day. He had so many questions yet every time he wanted to bring it up he felt that it was inappropriate considering Soul looked like he had just got mugged on a dark narrow alley way. He would look like an insensitive fool if he brought up his silly conspiracy theory, now would he.

“The Waiting Rooms.” Stein said. Kid’s foot had just stepped on Beezlebub. Liz and Patty had decided to hang with Maka that night, Kid not really feeling up to it thought it was best to go home— it mainly meant also he could ride his skateboard again instead of going onto the Tesla— which he enjoyed…but his heart always lied with his precious board.

“Huh?” The Reaper turned.  
“The Book you wanted. It’s called the Waiting Rooms by Rakim Mayers.”  
“Oh…” Kid said, “Thankyou!”

_The Waiting Rooms by Rakim Mayers, The Waiting Rooms by Rakim Mayers, The Waiting Rooms by Rakim Mayers…_

He repeated it in his mind over and over, as for if he had let his mind drift he would forget in an instant. And there was no way he was going ask Stein again— he had already sounded crazy enough.

_The Waiting Rooms by Rakim Mayers, The Waiting Rooms by Rakim Mayers, The Waiting Rooms by Rakim Mayers…_

Detouring from his goal of getting home before dark, he rode down the corridors to the library— sure he could walk— but he looked cooler this way.

The librarian typed at her computer, the keys echoed through the empty space. Not a soul would be in this late in the day. Kid had asked if they had The Waiting rooms somewhere hidden in the library, but by how long it had taken her to scroll through the long list of books with similar names, he was starting to loose hope on them having it.

“By who again?” She said, squinting at her monitor.  
“Rakim Mayers?” Kid peeking over the bench to take a look at her screen.  
“We don’t have a Rakim Mayers but we have a Rakim _S._ Mayers? Is that the same person or?”  
Kid peeking over the bench to take a look at her screen. “_The Waiting Rooms by Rakim S. Mayers._ Yes…yes that should be it!”  
“Well…” She said, “it was last checked out fifteen years ago. Seems as if no one really chased it up.”

Kid’s heart dropped, “Who?” Kid asked, “Who was it checked out by?”

The tapping of keys started again, a few back spaces, a few clicks, scrolls here and there before an answer arose.

“S. Albarn.”

Spirit? Why would Spirit read up on conspiracy theories? More importantly why would he never return it to the library? He certainly didn’t seem the type to read up on such things. Was he? I guess there was only one way to find out.

“Thankyou!” Kid said, “Thank you so much!” He left before the Librarian could respond, summoning his skateboard. There was no way he was just leaving this, he couldn’t sleep easy knowing he might be accidentally brought back to that god awful place. He needed to know— maybe Spirit had experienced something similar? Maybe no one believed him so he just shoved it aside? Oh yes it was all making sense! He loved playing detective.

He had managed to track Spirit down towards the end of the night, though it wasn’t hard considering it was quite easy to guess where the Death Scythe would be around this hour. 

Chupa♡Cabra’s had continued to be a successful business regardless of it’s scheme. Much to Stein’s disapproval Spirit would still find himself there on most nights, drinking and rambling about his little Maka with Blair by his side. Kid found it quite pathetic, but of course kept such thoughts to himself as to not offend any of the workers there.

“Oooooohhhh! Lookie who we have here? A Shinigami?” It was one of the new workers there that greeted him, he knew they were re-hring from Spirt putting the advertisements around the DWMA and Marie chasing after him taking all the signs down one by one. The waitress stood just a head taller than Kid wearing hardly an outfit as her breasts nearly seeped over her tiny top. He would be lying to himself if he said he didn’t glance, but he was not there for a Saturday night out. Especially since if word got around of him visiting a local cabaret there would only be controversy to be heard from the press.   
“Is Spirit in here? I need to speak with him. It’s urgent.” Kid crossed his arms, his eyes darting around desperately to look anywhere else but her chest.  
“Oh but don’t you want a drink first?~” She cooed, purring and pushing her body against his— perhaps he should be buying cases of beer from here instead.  
“I don’t drink.” He squirmed out of her grasp, trying to search the busy room with his eyes for the red headed man. The place was roaring music and drunken men clanging their pints of beer with one another. It seemed that Spirit was the only one that came on weekdays as Kid had never seen it so busy like this.

“Kid!” A voice called, the Death Scythe on the lounge with Blair in his arms twirling a glass of champagne, “Shinigami stress really getting to you?”  
“No…” Kid sat down on the pink armchair opposite his. “I need to talk to you.”  
“Could it be later? Cmonnn Kid just unwind! Have a drink.”  
“Spirit if we could maybe just go outside?”  
Spirit was a little tipsy from his too glasses of champagne, and completely misheard the concern in Kid's voice. “Hey Blair! Bring Liza over, Kid can’t be here all alone!” The scythe grinned, Blair giggling and waving another waitress down.

“It’s about the Waiting Rooms!”

The smile had just dropped off the Scythe’s face and it was clear that it wasn’t returning any time soon.

“Oh…” Spirit said.

“You know what I’m talking about right?”

Sprit knew, of course he knew. “Sorry Blair I have to leave.” He said abruptly.

“Awwww!~” She cooed twirling a figure eight onto his chest, “But everyone just got here!”  
“I know I know…I’ll see you tomorrow night!” He smiled at her, petting her head softly before exiting the bar with Kid.

The music was muffled from the outside but the beat could still be heard, thumping through the walls. The moon cackled, it’s light shining down on the alleyway behind the bar.

Kid explained everything— to much of his discomfort. The yellow, the hum, that creature, the smell of the rubber. He had felt the familiar sense of dread return to his stomach when he thought about it. None of it made sense. His head couldn’t wrap around such a place.  
“You were the last person to borrow that book.” Kid said, “I need it.”  
“Wh— Wait wait hold on. I need a moment.” Spirit said, pressing his back against the wall. “There’s more of them?”  
  
“What do you mean?”

“Well…” He lit his cigarette taking a deep inhale, blowing the smoke out watching it trail upwards towards the sky. Kid wasn’t sure if it was for a dramatic pause, though with the looks of Spirits shaky hands he perhaps had craved a cigarette all day. “I—….I was much younger when it happened. I remember leaning against the wall near the back of the Library and I just fell on in…just like you did on your bed. I was only there for a bout’ five minutes but I assumed it was some secret entrance that the DWMA made. The place is always full of secret little rooms so It makes sense doesn’t it? Some secret room that I fell into that I wasn’t meant to be in. But then it happened again…”  
“Where?” Kid asked.  
“On a mission in Denmark.” The Scythe responded. “Theres no way there could have been a secret DWMA room in Denmark.”

The Shinigami’s heart pounded, tingles crawled up his face with his stomach churning in anxiety. He knew it was real, he knew what he saw. But hearing it from someone else made his blood run cold. The look in Spirit’s eyes was the most serious it had ever been. There was only a moment of silence shared between the two.

“This time I was there for longer.” Spirit continued, “I had been at least two hours because time had passed on my watch. I didn’t see anything but I knew something was chasing me. And just like you I leant through a wall, came out on the other end somewhere in Christiana.”  
“Why didn’t you tell the Shinigami?”  
“Well I did but…”

“But..?”

Completely ignoring his question, Spirit pressed the butt of the cigarette against the wall.  
  
“Theres something I need to show you something Kid. Something I really wasn’t hoping to show to you so soon.”


	5. The Dark Old Archives

The scorching sun showed no mercy to those working outside. Death City’s plumbing had caused the water turn a murky brown from the rust on the outskirt housing. The site was filled workers drilling and digging on the rough Nevada desert that surrounded the city. There wasn’t a water source for miles so they only way to source it was to dig_ down_ into the rough terrain.

“Alright Chief, we fixed the main leakage and we’ve discovered the source of the rusting, should easily be done in two days tops.” Said Marvin, a construction worker who had been in the business for the longest time. He knew plumbing like the back of his hand, he slept plumbing, he dreamt plumbing— and if it was edible he would probably eat it too.

“You boys have done tootin’ good job here! I’ll tell the construction manager we’on track and we’ll get the approval to use the backup water supply.” Said Chief, his clip board in hand and a lumpily rolled cigarette hanging from his mouth. “Any faults at all?”

“There was one reported fault with the location of the digging. One of the rookie’s— he dug about 100 metres off target after misreading the coordinates. It was for one of the minor pipelines, parently’ he has troubles reading decimals.”

“Did it cause any damages?”

“Not that we’re aware off. He just needs approval to fill it back in.” He said, “It shouldn’t cause any delay.”

Cheif didn’t sound too convinced, he scribbled a few things onto his clipboard. “Take me to the hole.” He said. “I wanna have a word with the Rookie.”

  
The hole was quite deep, considering they he was digging for a while before he realised he was in the wrong area. The dirt became more dark and moist the further it went down.

  
“I’m sorry Chief!” The rookie gripped the sides of his construction hat, looking at the deep ground. “I can fill it back in quickly I just…I just messed up!”  
“You sure as christ himself messed up!” Chief exclaimed, “Didn’t you absorb a single dang moment of your training? I need this fixed by this afternoon or consider your apprenticeship ou—” At first Chief thought it was his imagination. Then the light flashed again from the corner of his eyes. There was something shining peaking out of the dirt. It was only little, but the rays made it much more noticeable.  
“Cheif?” Said Marvin, looking at the man whose eyes squinted down into the hole. “What’s wrong?”  
“Is that?…no…is it?" Chief said his eyes glistening, “Rookie, get me some shovels.”  
“Yes sir!” He nodded.

  
It was not long before they discovered what was peeping above the ground. They had dug around it in order not to disturb the artefact. It was a large blue tinted glass box that was blinding to anyone that looked directly at it. Chief inspected closer.

“Is it glass sir?” The rookie asked.

Marvin stayed quiet as his superior snooped around, running his dirty hands on the side.

“Boys…” Chief said finally, “We’re going to be rich…”

“Is that…diamond sir?”

Chief had tears in his eyes, “Yes Rookie…yes it is.”  
Marvin cleared his throat, “Shouldn’t we report this to the Shinigami? This could be an artefact maybe—”  
“And what? Let him put it in a fancy’ lookin’ keep safe while he continues to pay us just over minimum wage? We could retire on this! We could start our own Death City for all we want!”  
“I’m just saying— you think that it could be something dangerous? I mean a Kishin was under that school for the longest time— who knows what this could be. I mean why would it be buried so deep if—”  
“Marvin, stop being so darn pessimistic. You’re more than welcome to not take a cut and leave more for the restuvus.”  
“I just don’t think it’s right Cheif.” Marvin scratched the back of his neck.

  
It didn’t take much convincing for the Rookie to want in, but Marvin stepped back as the other two searched around trying to find the boxes opening— convinced that there would be even more treasure inside. The other construction workers had gone on their lunch break and it was quiet, the desert breeze would have been soothing if it wasn’t for the odd sensation that was coating Marvin’s conscience. Should he tell it to an official in order to report it to a Shinigami? That would be the right thing to do wouldn’t it? But then again, he was struggling with his rent…and all that money he could send his daughter to the finest schools wearing the prettiest of dresses. He could finally get the 1970’s Ford Mustang of his dreams and drive where ever he wanted too— because now— now he can afford it!

It was tempting.

Chief grinned at his co-worker who stood above them looking down onto the workers below. “I know you wanna do the right thing…” He said, “But think of your daughter! Your wife! Imagine all the pretty earrings you can buy her.”  
  
Nearly there.

“Or that car you’ve always dreamt of. C’mon…Marvin…”  
  
There.

“FINE!” Marvin exclaimed.

“Atta boy!”

Marvin was greeted with a pat on the back, and a shovel to help them bury it back down. “We’ll come back to tonight. Keep this between us boys if the whole team gets a cut the Shibusen will know for sure.” Chief said, “Plus, that leaves less for us.”

The Sun slowly started to sink down, the moon with its familiar grin shone its silver rays on the three workers that creeped back onto the site later that night. They brought their trusty shovels and started to dig the diamond box back up. There was a sinister breeze that was unwelcoming flying through the haunted desert and Marvin chattered his teeth with his co-workers who were digging the box out of the ground.

“Is it my imagination or…” The Rookie said, squinting his eyes. “Cheif, is it glowing?”

“Glowing?” Marvin inspected the box closer, “It does have a bit of a shine too it.”

The box pulsated a blue glow, at first it was dim, but it grew brighter lighting the ditch the three of them stood in.

“Cheif?” Rookie said, Cheif’s eyes reflected a bright blue from staring at the box in awe. The other two stood back, but Chief didn’t move. He held out his hands placing them on the side of the box.

“Wow….It’s beautiful…” He said.

There was first a pop, then a squeak then a crackle. The box started to crawl with veiny cracks along the side, more and more across the lid and the bottom.  
  
“Cheif I think we should leave it.” Marvin said, starting to move up towards the dirt, his feet struggling to climb back up as he started to panic.

A soft whine cried from the box. The cracks started to get deeper, cutting into the hard diamond. It even cut past Cheif’s fingertips which bled onto the box.

With deafening boom, the box exploded, flying into a million diamond pieces cutting into the workers around them.  
“Shit!” Marvin shouted, Chief screaming as his hands were nothing more than bloody meaty stumps with the white bone poking out. The Rookie’s eyes rolled to the back of his head, passing out back onto the dirt.

“Thankyou.” Said a masculine voice, standing above them on top of the ditch. His features weren’t distinct, but hair certainly was, it was nearly down to the ground, matted and coily covering most of his face besides a glowing white eye that peeked through the string of hair. “Thank you so much.” His arm shone a bright white before he welded a long katana. “I’ve been cramped up in that box for far too long. I’ve got the worst case of pins and needles.” He waved his sword around.

Chief was still crying in pain, his body growing numb as he felt shock take over him.

“Oh dear,” The mysterious figure looked behind Marvin, to the man behind him spurting blood like a water fountain up into the air. “that’s rough. No matter no matter. I won’t leave you all hanging!”

Marvin could feel tears welling up his eyes.

“After all I haven’t had a full meal in a long time…And I am so very hungry.”

Marvin knew this was a bad idea.

**2**

Kid had heard of the bloodbath within hours of its discovery. There was not much to scrape to send back to the workers families but the forensic team had done the best they could.

“We have a few ideas of what could have done this.” Said one of the DWMA detectives, J. Marshal. He was a young man, standing just a head taller than the Shinigami with a tan complexion. It was his first real case, often being put on petty thievery— he had a lot to prove wanted to make this promotion permanent. “We’re suspecting a Kishin, but a banshee fits the descriptor the scene we saw.”

Stein flashed a look at Kid, remembering the reapers little conspiracy scare. Of course what Liz saw was a banshee. It had to be now there was no doubt about it.

“Shinigami-sama.” Stein pushed up his glasses, “Why don’t you tell what happened to Liz?”

Kid knew where this was heading, he knew all of his own detective work had gone down the drain.

**3**

Three days earlier. 

It was three days earlier and it was starting to become so late into the night that within hours it would become two days earlier. The booming of Chupa♡Cabra’s had started to die down a tad bit as the Death Scythe and Shinigami walked through the streets back towards the DMWA.

“So what do you intend on showing me?” Kid turned to Spirit, hands in his pockets and his golden eyes glowing just slightly in the darkness of the alleyway.  
“You’ll see.” The redhead spoke, the cigarette bouncing from his mouth as he talked.

All this vague talk and hints was starting to get to Kid, if he wasn’t standing up, his leg would be bouncing anxiously, instead he went with the walking equivalent— jangling the change in his pocket. He didn’t know why he always felt the need to fiddle with things, it was a habit that he only recently discovered that he had. Why was he always so nervous and fidgety? This certainly wasn’t a trait that he had before, was this part of Jitsuzon-teki? It might explain all of his odd behaviours.

Particularly the one of him continuously going off track with his thoughts.

Spirit had noticed the sometimes empty dazed look in the Shinigami’s eyes, he usually would try and read people by looking into their eyes but this time he couldn’t. He couldn’t tell if the boy was thinking about what he was about to show him or observing the lack of symmetry in the footpath.

They were quiet for majority of the walk, Kid deciding not to ask any more questions until Spirit had shown whatever he needed to show to him.

“This.” Spirit lifted the lantern.

After a lot of walking, and seemingly no talking— they walked from Chupa♡Cabra’sto the furthest darkest corners of the DMWA halls, near the dry food storage room. There was a large cellar door underneath an old tartan carpet that make the Shinigami sneeze as it was pulled off the ground, a cloud of dust filling the air.

“A wine cellar?” Kid raised a brow at Spirit, “I wasn’t informed that we had one of these.”  
“It _was _a wine cellar, back when the school hadn’t expanded. Some of the wine down there dates back to the 1800’s. But we’re not there for a piss party Shinigami-Sama.” The scythe chuckled, before gripping the large rusted handle, groaning as he pulled the door open.  
“I figured.”  
“When the school was being built— Death, not surprisingly, built in a heap of secret tunnels that travel around to the classrooms underneath.” Spirit said.  
Once the cellar door was opened, it revealed stone stairs underneath that lead into complete darkness, they looked uncomfortably steep, nearly facing vertical into the musty abyss below. “Underground classrooms? That’s pretty extra.” Said Kid.  
“This is your father we’re talking about. They were used for the most elite of students but we don’t really have much use for them any more since we built newer classrooms…with air conditioning!”  
  
Kid would be lying if he didn’t say he felt slightly scared walking down those steep stairs, he partially gripped the back of Spirits jacket, so if he fell— Spirit was getting taken with him.

“Yeah..” Kid said, concentrating on not falling to his death— not that he could die here— but it would certainly hurt.

“I suppose you’re wondering where this leads. Well, I am taking you to our old, _old _Archives. Death wanted me to show you this in the Will but not until Jitsuzon-teki had passed. But since you’re seeing what you’re seeing I think it’s appropriate that I show you now.”  
“Well if Father didn’t want you to show me shouldn’t we wait?”  
“Maybe, but also I feel like this is a reasonable exception.”

Eventually the staircase led to a not surprisingly cold dark flat ground that expanded onto a large tunnel that just like the stairs— seemed to go on forever. The lantern that Spirit held only lit up what was in front of them, the place had an odd green tint to it and the walls were lined with shelves of old dusted wine that had nearly solidified in their bottles. The further they went down the darker the wine was. There was a faint smell of asbestos lingering in the air and the creaking of the wooden foundations were audibly groaning like an upset stomach.

“Did you hear that?” Kid turned behind them, looking back into the black that followed them.  
Spirit only sighed, “Yes I did.”

Kid thought it was his own footsteps at first, but then out of experimentation he stopped for a second, though what he thought was simply his imagination turned out to be true— he could hear more footsteps besides Spirits. There was something following them. It had to be.

“Again! I heard it again.” Kid turned around, “There’s something following us.

Spirit shook his head, “It’s fine.”

“You’re rather nonchalant about it. Should we be worried?” The Shinigami asked.

“Nah. You’ll hear that a lot down here. Let’s just keep going.” Spirit said, continuing to move down further. Kid stayed close to the Scythe— sure if worst did come to worst they could have easily fought off whatever was following them, but there was a sense of eerie ness. The anxiety in his stomach returning, feeling familiar only to that horrid yellow place.

Why was he feeling like that down here?

“So— we _are_ going to the Archives….but there’s something wrong with them you see.” Spirt said, after a while of walking they suddenly came to a halt.

There were filing cabinets lit by a consistent candle light that stayed a flame even when there was nothing seemingly to light it from. It looked like any archives would, smelt like archives too— like old cardboard boxes left out on a rainy day.

“Look closer,” Spirit said, “but whatever you do, don’t go past that line.” He pointed to a large deep crack on the cemented ground.  
  
Kid stepped closer. He was right. There was certainly something wrong, though only now that he was closer he could see it. Some books on the shelf floated mid air, other cabinets had merged like two objects clipping into each other. Some of the writing started to become gibberish when he actually attempted to read them and only then the Shinigami realised that all of the cabinets were nonsensical. None of them actually looked right to begin with. It made him uneasy.

“It doesn’t make sense…doesn’t it?” Spirit had his hands in his pockets, the lantern at his feet. “Because it’s broken.”  
“Broken?” Kid turned back, “What do you mean?”  
“It started about four years before I started at the DMWA. Bits of these broken parts started popping up all over the world. They’re incredibly dangerous to be in so if you step any further than that line— within minutes your body would start to decay and break away just like the segments that are already broken in there.”  
  
Kid suddenly took a step back. “Wow! Thanks for telling me that sooner!”

“We’re fine here Shinigami-sama. But beyond that crack in the ground— not even a God’s body can last. Your father and I knew nothing about them. All we know is that it doesn’t spread, so when parts of our world break all we can do is permanently seal them off. So far we’ve found about six and that they’re only in conveniently found inhibited places— places that are often unused or forgotten about. Places that maybe…we think…someone wouldn’t think about.”

“Places that don’t _need _to exist?” A lightbulb lit up above Kid’s head, “Like in a video game! Where the developers just sort of put a texture over something like a city scape instead of creating a physical city because the character doesn’t need to really go there— its more just for show because-” Kid suddenly went cold, feeling the hair prick up on his skin as he turned back to the broken archives.

Spirit watched the boy as he put two and two together. The Reaper took another step back, swallowing the growing lump in his throat as he leant against the cold moist wall needing a second to breath.

“Yes Kid.” Sprit frowned, “You pretty much hit the nail on the head.”  
“But that implies…”  
“We _think._” The Scythe picked up the lantern. “I’m not saying we’re in the Matrix, but what we’ve learnt so far that it does act very similar to that of a…computer of sorts. The operation to conceal these places on entailed with me and a few other trusted comrades. I was the only one that physically sealed them off usually by blocking the entrance to wherever these places were. We told those who reported such an anomaly that it was simply bad construction that was too dangerous to enter again. I mean why wouldn’t they believe that? We’re the Shinigami’s best trusted men. It made sense.”  
“What about the Waiting Rooms then?”

“That’s why I brought you down here. Your father never actually knew about those until an unlikely student managed to slip into it by accident. It seemed that instead of a permanently broken area like the old Archives it more glitched in and out whenever it wanted too. When you fell asleep in your dream your bed partially broke out of the world for a split second and you unfortunately are the one that fell in. When you came back out you came through your headboard but within seconds it was solid again— almost fixing itself. I don’t know how this works, your father didn’t know how it works. When that other student accidentally slipped in and reported it, we were still sworn to secrecy— but this time we couldn’t blame it on bad construction so of course— Death just shushed him up about it. That unlikely student was naturally curious and didn’t take no for an answer— dug deeper into the mysteries and wrote a book.”  
“Rakim S. Mayers.” Kid still stared wide eyed at the now dimly lit broken hallway. “He accidentally fell in didn't he. Just like you did…Just like I did. But how did he not break within minutes? Wait how did I not break? I was in there for at least an hour! If supposedly that’s what happens when you’re in there.”

Spirt just shrugged. “I…I don’t know.” He said, before prompting Kid to follow him back up to the entrance. The Scythe was feeling uneasy as well, and wanted to get out of there as soon as possible. “Again, they’re a mystery. People have disappeared without a trace in the past, we can only suspect they were taken in there somehow. We do know that there are things that lurk in there, just like the being that you encountered. But what is concerning me more is that Liz saw one of the beings in that apartment. It probably means that theres more openings than we think. There’s no way for anyone to travel to and from the Waiting Rooms without physically getting in and out through a broken segment— so it must mean that more segments are accidentally breaking somehow. Just like how _we _can accidentally slip in, _they_ can accidentally slip out.”  
“But that doesn’t make sense, how can the only way you enter Waiting Rooms is by physically going in? The first time I went in there I dreamt it.”  
“Dreamt it? That’s impossible. Such a place is so hard to comprehend theres no way even a Shinigami mind could make something like that up.”  
“Tell that to my subconscious.”  
“Strange…” The two walked back down the hallway. Kid felt quite funny about the whole situation. It made him feel a particularly icky-ness that he hadn’t felt before. His entire life he had known all the big things in the world. Asura was big and powerful, Lord Death was big and powerful all the Great Old ones were big too. How could there be something possibly bigger? Something so big that his own Father couldn’t understand or control? Something so big that he couldn’t tell anyone but his trusted comrades?

“And Kid,” Spirit said, forgetting to address the reaper by his formal name— but Kid was too baffled by the whole situation to care. “not a word. To anyone. I’m serious. If Rakim’s theory gets proven true, faith in you will crumble. Everything that people have ever known or believed in will fall apart. People will doubt your every move and you will become powerless with no control of order. This’ll only allow for chaos to follow but this time people won’t need the Madness to comply. Do you understand?” This was the most serious Spirit had ever been in his life, Kid had never seen him this stone cold before. The Scythe certainly had his moments, but this? There wasn’t a glimmer of warmth in the fire head what so ever and Kid could feel Spirits concern stab right through him. “Not even Stein.” The scythe reaffirmed.

“Yes sir.” Kid said. “I promise.”

“Good.” They continued walking, the odd footsteps form earlier following behind them.

“You never explained the footsteps.” Kid looked behind him with concern.

“That’s another thing.” The Scythe sighed, “Those footsteps that you heard following you were actually your own. Few times I’ve been round here the surroundings don’t work down here as they should. They don’t get partially broken and transport you to the Waiting Rooms but sometimes things are just off. Like sound would be delayed or we’ll be blocked by an invisible force for a few seconds stopping us from moving further before it suddenly lets us through. Like its sort of…lagging behind or something.”

**4**

**  
So clearly, Kid couldn’t say a word to anyone. Not even Stein.**

Stein pushed up his glasses. “Why don’t you tell what happened to Liz?”

Kid felt like an idiot. He knew The Waiting Rooms were real but now was going to look like an absolute fool because he had to cover it up. Not even the first month on the job and he was already sounding like he was going through some Shinigami-stress-realted crisis.

“We think she…” He felt his sense of pride fading, Spirt flashed him a look from across the room, his eyes just as cold as they were that night in the tunnels. He swallowed the lump of pride in his throat, “She was scared by a banshee. There might be a few out and about terrorising people.” Kid felt awful covering it with a lie.

“I see.” Marshal scribbled on his note pad. “Is there any chance I could speak to Liz? To get her to describe what she saw.”

_Oh shit, _Kid thought, _If they interview Liz she’ll describe something that isn’t a banshee. Then there will be investigations on whatever that creature is— the creature which must be from that awful yellow place. Then I’m going to have to cover it with more lies! And then more lies to cover those lies!_

“I don’t think Liz’ account is relevant.” Spirit came to the rescue, “It was also reported that night that she was intoxicated and witnessed it during a game of truth or dare.”

Kid grit his teeth, hoping Spirits comment was enough.

“Yes!” Kid added onto it, “Um well, even though we think she was scared by a Banshee I’m certain she wasn’t.” He quickly changed his story, “Liz has had a history of being easily frightened. I think it would be a waste of time considering how brutal the attacks were. The sooner this thing is caught the better. We can’t get distracted from drunken witness reports.” Kid had a gut feeling that whatever caused those attacks had something to do with the Waiting Rooms. Though the further he could deter from Marshal discovering it the better.  
“Every witness account is needed Shinigami, even if it might not add any value to the case.” The detective said, raising a brow at the Reaper, “I understand your concern for wanting this solved quickly but it won’t be done so unless we gather all the clues we can find and that includes Liz’ witness account. As the Shinigami I thought you would understand this.”

“Yeah..” Kid said, disheartened, any more pestering to not search this further would start to sound suspicious— and he couldn’t have that. “Yeah alright we’ll start the questioning tomorrow.”

**** **5**

It was later into the night when Kid started to feel the on set panic from the events of the last week. It had made him panicky for the most part— but right now he was really feeling it.

“Why can’t we just tell them Spirit?!” Kid pulled at his hair gritting his teeth stomping up and down the Death Room, “What makes you think that society will crumble if we tell them there’s an inter dimensional fucking space realm that you can accidentally fall into?! My father hid a Kishin under a school for death-sakes and he was still loved by many! Why do I have to cover lies with lies! I’m already struggling to keep the public under control from the Witch Treaty, and if they found out I lied about something as big as this instead of just admitting it— I’ll be done for! The public will hate me. I’ll be scolded at, no one will listen to what I have to say and that’s just as bad as society crumbling anyway! Its a catch 22 Spirit! We’re fucked!”

“Kid, listen— we can’t. We just can’t. In Rakim’s book talking about the Waiting Rooms he also has propaganda against the Shibusen, the Great Old ones, and Lord Death. He goes on to talk about everything we know is a lie, a lie created by what he thinks— are zero’s and ones. Which for all we know could be entirely TRUE. Imagine if something like that came out? There would be total chaos. There would be no morals, no one would fear Death. No one would fear YOU because fuck it we’re all just an illusion anyway. There are ways of manipulating the Waiting Rooms Kid and if people found out how— Yes— PEOPLE. Not witches, not Kishins, people. Normal people. If they found out the whole system could be corrupted and we can end up breaking whatever the hell makes up our world around just like the Archives. It’s catastrophic.” Spirit clenched his fists, watching the younger boy storm around.

  
“Well where is this book huh Spirit? Where is it? Why can’t I read it?” Kid exclaimed, his eyes widening.

“Its….it’s lost…” Spirit looked away. “I don’t know where it is.”  
“Well I’ll go find a PDF online or something. There has to be more than one copy.” Kid crossed his arms. “What do we do Spirit? Marshal is going to interview Liz and whatever she describes is not going to be a banshee. Then he’s going to want to know more about this creature, this creature that fits the descriptions of what I saw in the Waiting Rooms. And then what— he’s going to go down a spiral of discoveries somehow find Rakim’s book. With more of these creatures escaping the Waiting Rooms there are going to be more people encountering them— and then our secret is out. Call me crazy for over thinking this— but he’s a detective. It’s going to happen.”  
  
Spirit looked down at the ground for a minute. Kid was right, he knew he was right. “Then we have to do a cover up.”

“What?” Kid asked, “Cover lies with lies then a cover up of more lies? Are you joking?”

“Well do you have any better ideas?” The Scythe snapped. “We have to do a mass cover up, plant evidence, fake witness testimonies, create fear to distract Marshal and the public for thinking what happened to those poor workers was caused by banshee’s.”

Kid looked at Spirit with disbelief, he couldn’t believe what is he was hearing. “You…you sound like you’ve done this before Spirit. Is this the first time something like this has happened?”

Spirit shook his head. No more lies. There had been enough of them already.

“You have so much to learn about politics Kid.”


End file.
